Journey to the Past
by sasa-cocoa
Summary: Echizen Kana accidentally drank Inui's son, Itaki's juice and went back to time, before her parents started to date. would she able to change the proud and the shy, or the entire future she lives in will be rewritten again, a world she doesnt exist in.
1. Chapter 1: A Day at the Echizen's

Disclaimer: For one thing, if all these stories here are owned by someone writing here, then why fanfiction?

Summary: How can a mere girl put the two together when one was too proud, the other too shy?

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Chapter 1: A Day at the Echizen's

"Kana! It's about time you should wake up! Or you will be late for school and on the first day!" Echizen Sakuno's soft voice rang through the Japanese house in Tokyo, well maybe only half of it. Face it, her voice? Maybe it could only be heard in the same room as her, which coincidentally should be the kitchen.

It was a futile effort. Sakuno knew very well how much of power her voice can hold. Pausing in the act of preparing the children's bento, she went upstairs to call her daughter up. Reaching the second level, she turned right and paused by the first door which was wide open.

Her elder son was there, standing in front of a full floor mirror, fixing his school tie onto his neck. The sun had already shined through the window, throwing the neat room with light. Over from where she stood, it strikes Sakuno the billionth time on how much his son looks like her husband. His hair laying the same way as the world famous tennis star, with the same face; pointed chin and a trace of same haughty look that Ryoma always wore. The only thing differs the way he looks is the color of his hair and eyes. Unlike the golden orbs that usually pierce through Sakuno whenever Ryoma look at her, Ryu had the chocolate brown orbs inherited from her.

Ryu had looked up, spotting his mother by the doorway. "Ohayo, Okasan." He politely greeted. Another one thing that Ryu differ from his father was his personality, which fortunately was too, like his mother which also, ahem... attracted more girls from his old school over at America. It was his kind, warm personality that drove the girls crazy over at him. But it is also this personality that often landed him at the mercy of the fan girls; he never had the heart to ask them to leave him along or to reject a crazy fan girl date. He was lucky to have a younger and possibly much stronger sister, who half the time mercilessly told the girls to shut it.

Talking about his sister, he told his mother, "To wake her up, try to shake her by her head instead of shoulder. And if she wouldn't just tickle her feet, she'll wake up in no time. To save time, I suggest the tickling; at this rate, she will land me in trouble for being late for the first day too."

Sakuno nodded, appreciating the useful information her son gave. As expected from twins, who knew each other that well. Oh yes, her first and only pregnancy was twins, a girl and a boy. Ryoma's father was delighted at his grandchildren, so was Rinko. They absolutely praised Sakuno for her good job, which she still vividly remember how much she blushed when Nanjiroh ask how did they do it.

She pushed opened the Japanese style room, which revealed a dark room. Kana had drawn the thick heavyset curtains over her window, an act to avoid the sunlight shining into her room, waking her up. Sakuno carefully stepped into the room, afraid that she might step onto something that might hurt her, or to break one of the many precious things her daughter cherish.

Cherish, this word normally means that people take good care of it, but not Kana. Unlike her twin brother who was neat and tidy, she is the complete opposite. Her books laid scattered, mostly manga, with plenty of different accessories on the floor. It is utterly difficult to believe that they had just moved in the last night at 8 in the evening.

On the queen size bed at the edge of the room which stands close to the close glass door of the balcony, laid a young girl of 12. Her long hair totally messed up and her pajamas rumpled as she shifted in her large bed muttering, "Five more minutes."

Sakuno reached over the window and balcony and pulled apart the curtains. Bright sunlight immediately hit the fluttering eyelid of Kana's. Instantly, she shed her eyes with her forearms, turning over to the other side to avoid the sun rays. Sakuno followed her son's advice and took Kana's head and shook it lightly, side by side.

Kana hated that, she immediately sits up, all sleepiness erased. "Ryu put you up to this?" she said angrily. She jumped of the bed and expertly marveled about her room, avoiding all the scattered objects about it. She went into her own bathroom and started to squeeze some toothpaste onto her brush and started her morning routine.

Her eyes glancing over to a small alarm clock that she unpacked last night, it widened as she took in the time. Her mouth bubbled as she wailed, well, bubbled wail. Sakuno couldn't help but laughed how her daughter hurried brushed her teeth at top speed and gather her school stuff. Her original purpose of her job done, she went back to the kitchen.

Over there, her husband had already woken up, but barely. Her son was beside him, wearing a triumph look on his face, Sakuno had a very good idea what had cause the sudden early rise for the sleeping tennis prince. Ryoma, his hair rumpled untidy just like his daughter, yawn, stretching his back as he flopped down to the nearest chair. Sakuno smiled as she went to prepare a cup of hot coffee for him, she set down the portion for his breakfast, his favorite Japanese style.

Kana had entered the kitchen, her long greenish black hair carelessly combed and her uniform wore, also carelessly. Sakuno shook her head as she took in the half tucked in shirt and loosely tied tie. Kana threw her school bag down unceremoniously by her chair which when Ryu peeked into, just as messy as the owner. He signed as he saw the new term books got folded by a corner, so unlike his own. Kana had merely reached for the necessary and dumped them in.

Just as Ryu resembled his father, Kana too look a lot like her father. They are twins after all. Although she had the same pointed chin of Ryoma's and Ryu's, her face was fuller like her mother's, appropriate for a girl. Her eyes too, more rounded just like her mother's then the sharp shape suitable for guys. A mixture of both her parent's genes gave a beautiful face, which earns just as much fans boys compared to her brother's fan club.

Her personality was also a mixture. The untidiness, laziness, and sometimes, the cold attitude, Sakuno wondered why she inherited all the bad things from her husband. It's not as though Ryoma had no good point about him. She looked over at the eating figure at her left, who nodded in approval of her excellent cooking skills. Um, maybe he doesn't have much of good points to inherit. And how in the world did she fall in love with him?

Kana had finished her glass of milk and half of what's in her plate. Her golden orbs looked carefully at her mother who was intensely gazing upon her husband. Sakuno jumped when Kana suddenly called her.

"Okasan? Why are you looking so intently on Otoesan?" Kana pointed out.

Sakuno slightly blushed. Oh yes, her habit of blushing had never been kicked off, thinking fast she said, "Because there is a rice on the right side of his face."

It had been lucky that Ryoma did have rice sticking on his right cheek, he took it off and pop into his mouth, "Thanks."

Sakuno internally signed, it had not been easy to raise Kana up. She had a sharp mind and unfortunately the same sharp eyes of her father's. Which could pick up things very fast, and it is another thing that she is very sensitive over at romance details which her father often lacks.

Kana smirked, the trade like Ryoma's smirk, "I don't think so."

Sakuno gulped wondering what she might say later.

"I think, you are thinking…" Kana continued, allowing silence to prolong, deciding against to bully her mother and also so early in the morning, she whispered the rest into her ear, "your young love days with Dad."

Sakuno blushed so hard that the two guys within the household looked questioningly over at Kana, who had laughed hysterically at her as usual right answer. Ryoma shrugged and brought his plate over to the basin to clean it up, but paused. Over there, laid the children already prepared bentos. Picking one, he removed the cover and took one of the rice balls and pops it into his mouth.

"OYAJI!!!!!!!!!" Kana practically screeched when she spotted Ryoma taking off the lid of her light purple bento box and ate one of her favorite rice balls. Chaos had started about the Echizen household.

Ten minutes later, Ryoma sat dejectedly on the front seat of his Ferrari with his children at the back seat. Kana who was pissed off, huffing, arms folded as she stared determinedly outside while Ryu look bored sat on the left. Sakuno had ordered him to take them to school, an apology for eating Kana's rice ball. It wasn't his fault. Okay, it had been his. But he was still hungry, and it didn't help when Sakuno had such professional cooking skill.

Finally, he stopped by the familiar school gate which he had last seen for so many years. Things had changed, including the uniforms and the color of the building, but maybe, just maybe the tennis courts might remain the same as ever. He was about to bid the children goodbye when he heard the slam of the door on the left. Kana had marched off, her long hair dancing wildly behind her. Ryu had gone too, just right behind her. He had glanced back over at their father, grinning apologetically as Kana dragged him along to the direction of the office.

With a sign, he marveled the car off, returning back to the resident of Echizen's. Which is no longer quiet for it was filled with the old regulars. Shouts and laughter rang as Ryoma had a very good idea of who had visited. And true enough, when he returned to the living room, saying a 'Tadaima' that no one could hear, he was immediately glomped by a red haired guy.

Ryoma choked, 'will Eiji ever get out of this unhealthy and dangerous habit? ' He was nearly choked to death twice before and wasn't eager for the third time. Luckily, Momo-sempai manages to pull him off before it could happen.

"Why you decided to return to Japan?" Eiji asked excitedly, bouncing up and down at his seat.

"I had Kana and Ryu to study over at Seishun," Ryoma replied coldly, as a smiling Sakuno passed him a glass of grape ponta. There are mutters of good choice and cheers. Over the noise, Momo had shouted, "Who knows? Maybe his son might find someone that changes his fate over, just like him." Finishing it, he gave Ryoma a meaningful look which he instantly regretted when a tennis ball flew to his face.

The room rang with laughter and the morning went on, wearing poor Ryoma out.

When the regulars finally went off, Ryoma was glad. He pulled Sakuno close, since the rush of moving back to Japan, he had hardly a chance to remain with his wife alone. He put his face by the crook of her neck and snuggled deeper. And just like that, he fell asleep, his arms about Sakuno, possessively.

Sakuno stroked the hair of Ryoma's her mind, went back what she had been thinking in the afternoon, how she ended up with him. It all revolved about a girl call Kana, which they had named their daughter after her. After all, it was because of the girl than they could be together.

It was so long ago, when they are third year at Seishun , when she was 15. Also that was when Ryoma had returned from America. This girl had popped out of nowhere, somehow rather confusedly too. And she seemed to know her quite well and also some of the othes. Come to think of that, she looks somehow quite like her daughter Kana too.

Could it be?

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Oh yeah! Finished! It was a sudden aspiration, and this is it! :D haha. Reviews!!!!!

Oh yeah, I might not be able to update soon. Sorry for those who are going to be eager for the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2: It's entirely his fault

Author notes: The next chapt. And it's kind of long….

Chapter 2: It's his entire fault

After finishing confirming some stuff with the school principal, or more likely, receiving some special attention from him. It was expected, especially when their father was an ex-student there and had returned, world famous. They now headed to their classroom, which was coincidentally the same one that their parents shared when they were back all year one.

Kana was about to pulled back the Japanese sliding door that leads into the classroom, but was stopped by Ryu.

"What?" Kana asked, rather crossly too. It took rather little to set her off ever since their father ate her rice ball this morning.

Ryu eyed his younger twin sister from head to toe. "Hair messy, shirt not tuck in, tie not tied properly and also the half awake look of yours," as he spoke, he pointed at the offending areas to emphasize on his point.

Kana closed her eyes and raised her chin up, and with her right hand, she ran it through her long greenish black hair that her father didn't allowed her to cut short. "This is what we called fashion."

"And what about the rules?" Ryu rebutted.

Kana eyes narrowed, the school principal didn't even blinked twice when she walked into his office without knocking too. "Didn't you know? Rules are meant to be broken," with that, she slide the door opened ignoring her brother protests.

Class had started, the first period, math. Everyone attention had diverted at the opened door, revealing two people, a boy and a girl. The girl standing there, bold and wild while the boy is somehow, waving his hands in a panicky way, but paused when he noticed their attention. He immediately stood straight and scratched the back of his head.

The teacher had asked them to enter and started to introduce both of them. "Class, these two are your new classmates, Echizen Ryu and Echizen Kana. Get along well!"

"Echizen?" One of the girls had gasped.

The teacher smiled and nodded, "Yes. These are the children of the world famous tennis player, Echizen Ryoma." And then the class buzzed about, excited at this new piece of news or gossip. Kana pouted. 'Great, the press going to come after us now.'

Rolling her eyes, she spotted a familiar face in the crowd of excited people. But before she could go towards him, they were surrounded. By girls. By a LOT of girls.

Opps.

You can practically see those starry eyes of theirs, as they surround Ryu and Kana while the two practically sweat dropped. The teacher couldn't do anything. Ryu smiled nervously, but received a sharp jab from his sister. "Don't!" she whispered urgently into his ear, "That's what it kept them going. Can't you just be cold and ask them to leave? For goodness sake, be a bit more like Oji!" Ryu gulped, 'If it could be as easy as she says.' Kana signed, his brother completely fails as a hopeless tennis player that couldn't protect himself from fan girls.

Dropping her bag on the floor, creating a loud thud so that the attention was diverted to her, she turned her golden eyes and stared at the girls. Although she doesn't have the same scary eyes his father had, her eyes usually contained that glint that fends people off. True enough, some of the girls took a step back. In a cold voice she said, "Get lost; you are irritating." As expected, she had the same cold attitude as her father, the same speaking lines and the same bored cold look.

The girls laughed nervously, humorlessly too, but they listened going back to their assigned seats. The teacher gave them signal and Ryu started to introduce himself, "Hello, my name is Echizen Ryu. Please to meet you! Hope to get along well with you." He finished with a courtesy bow and smiled. A smile which will make the girls sign contentedly in their seats if Kana wasn't behind him, her golden eyes flashing.

Kana stepped forward, or was rather, pushed forward by Ryu. With a detected reluctance in her voice, she said, "Echizen Kana." And stopped. With a visible sharp nudge by Ryu, she continued, an even more reluctance tone heard, "Please to meet you." Those in the front could hear her, but at the back, the guys are desperately cranking their eyes to hear her voice. Even with the cold attitude, or more like, because of the cold attitude, the guys couldn't take their eyes of her. Here is a totally different girl.

Satisfied that the class knew them and that they had introduced themselves, the teacher started to assigned them seats, separately. But stop short when she caught the look on Kana's face. Her voice falters slightly, her arm still pointing on the second row of seat where Ryu should be sitting on, as she looked as Kana who had rolled her eyes. It is evident why, for the seatmate of Ryu's, an overly excited girl is practically bouncing on her seat.

Kana ignored the still teacher and pulled the slightly protesting brother with her bag to a pair of empty seats at the back with only a single girl was sitting there, her eyes extremely hopeful as they approach nearer.

Kana took in the look of the girl, 'Um, long blue hair and light purple eyes. No sparkle within eyes, no self-satisfied smile, in other words, one of the nicer girls.' Stopping short in front of her, Kana asked, "Mind if we sit here?"

The blued hair girl immediately stood up and bowed low, "Of course not!" Her voice was soft, respectful and somehow filled with a little fear and awed. Kana wondered if she is that scary to frighten her. Nodding her appreciation, she settled herself in the middle with her brother on the right and the girl on her left. Just in case the girl wasn't what she seems on the outside.

Once she settled down, the girls and guys in the class had turned in their seats to look at the trio. Kana wasn't surprise to see that some of the girl's eyes contain hatred as they look at the blue hair girl. She kept it in mind to protect her. Kana case her eyes about to look for that familiar figure, but he had turned and looked back front again. 'Oh well, we can talk during tennis practice.'

The morning classes passed quickly, and in the afternoon find the twins standing outside the tennis courts, still in their uniform. They are about to enter the Seigaku's tennis team. Things had changed over the years, the boy's and girl's teams are now mixed together.

The first years, just as usual are picking up fallen tennis balls. Well, almost all, there is a guy in dark blue hair, spiked up wearing glasses, scribbling hurriedly into his green notebook as he watched the tennis match between his seniors.

Ryu and Kana were also watching too. It was a match of doubles, and judging by Kana smirk, it was evident that she thought nothing much of them. Ryu was too shaking his head slightly when one of them lost their balance and almost fell sideways onto the clay ground.

There was a shout towards them; it was the opponents of the one whom nearly fell. "What do you think you are doing over there? And what's with that smirk? Come in right here and beat us if you think you can!" one of the guys said. Kana raised her eyebrows while Ryu had already got out his racket. He may be not very good with girls, but he will never miss an opportunity for a tennis match.

It was rather obvious who will win. Unlike their father who hadn't had an ounce of knowledge on doubles, the twins collaborate perfectly as they understood each other completely. They had been training as doubles playing against their father since they were as young as three; they are masters at both singles and doubles already. And true enough, in the next fifteen minutes, they had won with a score of 6 – 0. Their opponents didn't even have a chance for a single couldn't wait for the day she achieve the highest level at tennis and teach her father a lesson. Just wait for the day where she could say: "Mada Mada Dane" back to her dad. Just wait.

The boy with the glasses had finally looked up; it is Inui's son, Itaki. Pushing his glasses up a bit on his nose, he smiled. Ryu automatically took a step back, he had expected this, but was not ready for it.

"Welcome back to Japan. I vaguely overheard my father talking over the phone with his captain yesterday about it. So, I had prepared some special present for both of you. It was sad that I had not much ingredients so there is only…"

It was lucky that someone cut short his words, or Kana and Ryu will suffer the same fate as their father did, many years back. But maybe not that lucky, for they might survive from Itaki's juice but not…

"Thirty laps for causing trouble in the courts," a cold voice said. Great. Just why the tennis princes had their kids all aged so close together. Tezuka's kid, Saruka, a cold stoic girl, had just ordered them laps. She was older by them only a year, their senior. Kana signed. Although they might knew each other since they are barely three, rules still applies to them just as fair as anyone who is in the tennis team.

Ryu and Kana immediately gave her the thirty laps she wanted. Well not all immediately, Kana had pushed her luck with Saruka which results in an extra five rounds. Since Ryu was the first one to finish, he was sitting on one of the bench, ignoring the comments and awe passing back and forth about their excellent doubles game. Itaki hadn't given up his approach on Inui's juice, which had changed to Itaki's juice for now. He came about the panting Ryu and said, "I hadn't finished what I said. It was sad that I had not much ingredients so there is only a cup." With that, he pulled out a glass out of nowhere which is filled with clear liquid, just like plain water.

Ryu knew better. Never except anything from Itaki, especially if it is a drink. It might contain something dangerous that will land you in hospital. He hoped that the rumor that Momoshiro-jisan accidentally drank some Inui's juice which cause him to faint during one match that they will about to win was false. But he took it, nevertheless, reminding himself to pour it over the grass once Itaki took his eyes off him.

At this time, Kana had finished her run, panting harder than Ryu for she was assigned an extra of five rounds for rebutting the captain; she took the glass from Ryu and drank it in one huge gulp. Then she chucked the empty glass back to the stunned Ryu and lay flat on the ground, completely exhausted.

Ryu carefully watched his sister face, trying to detect the look of disgust which normally will be present on the face of anyone who tried Itaki's experimental potions, but found none. Itaki's glasses glint and walked off, muttering some words that Ryu could not catch, but he seems satisfied. Ryu was deeply uneasy, but it seems that his sister is all right…

Maybe he should forget about it.

It was until the end of the day and nothing strange had happened to Kana then Ryu deduce that Itaki had finally managed to concoct out an odorless and colorless plus tasteless improving body juices. He hoped that he would be successful in it too, for he wouldn't want to swallow some vomit like tasting juice.

During dinner back at home, he wondered if he should tell Kana. Well maybe after it, for she might lost her appetite. She was already rambling on how harsh was Saruka on them to their father. And that how much basic training had been forced onto them. "It's no big deal that we had just transferred in. Why shouldn't we allow wearing those regulars jacket? Even of all of them team up, they would not be my opponents at all!!" Kana went on complaining the unfairness on first-years.

Sakuno smiled. Oh how it reminds her. Of her first meeting of Ryoma, her first time watching him playing a match, the first time she met him in school and that he couldn't remember her name, her first time making a bento for him and how he said, "Mada Mada Dane.", her first time going out with him to the racket stringer which Tomo-chan had mistaken it as a date, oh…. How many first times? And now? And many more times now and in the future. Life is satisfying when you can simply spend it with your love one.

After dinner over at the study table, Ryu finally filled Kana in on how she accidentally drank Itaki's juice. The effect was immediate and expected. Kana immediately covered her mouth, feeling her mother's excellent cooking churning inside her stomach. Fighting against the strong nausea, she asked when.

After realizing that nothing had happen, Kana felt much more relieved, she couldn't help but agree with her brother. Maybe Itaki DID succeeded in making a juice that is odorless and colorless plus tasteless.

Well, that was a least what she thought until the next morning.

The sunlight hit Kana's eyes. It was weird, for she always draws the curtain tight close before she sleeps, and that she sensed that no one had entered the room. Then why the light?

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes. Then she realized that someone was on her bed. Correction. Judging by the pink frilly pillows, she was the one on someone else bed. And that there is someone lying beside her!!

Stunned, she looked at the person's back. Long brown colored hair, the same shade as her brother's was staring back at her, judging by the size, the someone was about the same size as her. She bolted up straight and exclaimed.

"RYU! SINCE WHEN YOUR HAIR IS THAT LONG? IT'S ALMOST AS LONG AS MINE! OKASAN! OYAJI!"

The someone had turned sleepily, so that she now faced Kana.

Kana gasped. 'No, it couldn't be!'

The face of the younger Sakuno Ryuzaki now faced her, the same length of hair the way they got kind of wavy at the end was the same, the same kind of puffier cheeks and also the same shape of eyes which they stared into each other's, the same line ran through their mind: "What the heck?"

Kana shook her head, pinching her arm and receive a sharp pain. No, she wasn't dreaming. That means…

She turned and look at the pink calendar hanging not far from here. The same date that would be if she was at home now, but the year…

7 years BEFORE SHE WAS BORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She turned back and looked at the fifteen year old Sakuno, her face completely dejected. How did she travel back in time?????????????????????????????

Kana remembered the juice she drank. THE JUICE!!!

"IT'S ALL ITAKI'S FAULT." She wailed, much to the shock of 15 year old Sakuno.

_Oh yeah! Finished!!__ Reviews!!!_


	3. Meet her Mom, is she always that clumsy?

Author Notes: I kind of addicted to my own story.. Lol. Forgot to mention last chapt, but…

Disclaimer: POT doesn't belong to me. Kana and Ryu is mine…….. Absolutely mine…

Author Notes 2: My profile is at www. Escapingintomyownworld. Blogspot. Com

To chromate: Oh, it is not a mistake. It is written as 7 years BEFORE she was born…

To YYY: Thank you so much for loving my story and to scream for updates.

To all the fans for this story: WOW! I didn't know that a lot of people is waiting for me to update. And I am so TERRIBLY SORRY that I didn't update soon. My major papers had just ended yesterday, so I can finally start on my stories once more. But these few days I would be busy cause I am having a chalet and BBQ soon. It didn't help much when I am the one of the organizer for the programs. PLEASE PLEASE forgive me. I'll try to update as fast as I could. And oh yea! If you LOVED this. Review. If you HATE this, please even more Review. If you liked this but think there is room for improvement, you MUST review. Thank you for putting up with this unreasonable writer! :P

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Chapter 3: Meeting her Mom, is she always that clumsy?

Sakuno eyes widen as she took in the real image. She had rolled over at her bed when she detected a movement and saw those golden orbs that she had been so in love with, since first year. Still not fully awake, she foolishly thought that Ryoma was beside her, she stretched her hand to stroke his greenish black hair until, the 'Ryoma' wailed out loud.

The two girls stared at each other, one too shock, the other dismayed.

'I should have know that nothing good ever comes from Itaki's Juice.' Kana thought desperately, how would she ever able to return back to the present?

Finally getting over her shock to discover a complete stranger girl in her bed instead of her imaginary Ryoma, Sakuno summoned her courage and asked softly, "Ano… Who are you?"

Kana said without much thinking, "Kana, you always called me Kana." Oops, she let out something not supposed to be said.

"Always? Do I know you?" Sakuno confusedly asked, she added after a pause, "Kana-san?"

Kana shook her head and hands, "Oh no no, um.. We met at school. Haha, but you didn't know me yet. Just call me Kana will do."

"You are from Seishun Garden too?" Sakuno asked quizzically, she had never seen Kana-san before.

Thinking fast, Kana nodded, "I just transferred. Um… Like yesterday?"

It wasn't an entire lie. The yesterday was as in the present yesterday, not the history yesterday. Confusing?

"Oh, I see," Sakuno said, but things still didn't add up why Kana ended up on her bed.

And it's another thing how she looks so familiar. Sakuno hated it, hated how when she woke up and thought that it was Ryoma lying beside her, thinking what a wonderful this dream is. Especially when Kana had the same color eyes and hairs as her first and only crush.

"Sakuno? Is there anything wrong? I just heard you wailed something," an elderly yet strong voice float up from the first floor of the Japanese house.

Kana eyes widened. It's her great grandmother who had died just two years ago; in the present. This is not very good, for her great grandmother is the only one so far who is able to force her to behave, and also the one who can guess what she is up to next.

'Oh, this is so weird. The person is dead. Long dead but alive now, what am I going to do??' Kana thought. "Um, Sakuno-chan? Can you help me? Don't tell your grandmother that I am here. I, uh, will leave through…"

Kana looked around wildly as footsteps thundered up the stairs. Yes, literally thundered. Although at such an old age, Ryuzaki sensei isn't tired nor did she even felt that she is getting older as years pass. Kana had spotted Sakuno's personal balcony. Pushing the glass sliding door open, she stepped out into the winter air. A wind blew at the moment, Kana shivered. Snow hadn't arrived yet, so the ground isn't covered with white flakes. She internally cursed the change of season of where she had left, her favorite spring time. She better got back in time to view the blooms of Sakura flowers. Oh, how much she looked forward to_ hanami, _the only thing that makes her eager to return back to Japan.

Kana leaned over the balcony and was glad that they were only on the second floor, which means, that the drop from the ground wasn't all that far, she should be able to land safely. Kana turned and face Sakuno, eagerly pointing downstairs. Sakuno got the idea and shook her head wildly but Kana had already jumped off. Shocked, Sakuno gasped and ran to outside to see Kana wide grin, her long greenish hair flowing with the cold wind giving her a thumbs up sign.

But, passer-bys look curiously at her, wondering why she is still in her pajamas. Sakuno shook her head resignedly, but was not spare of time to worry about that because the door to her room had already been thrown open revealing her grandmother.

"SAKUNO?! Why are you standing outside in the cold? And why are you so late? School is going to start soon!!" Ryuzaki sensei strong voice bellowed.

Five minutes later, Kana was already in Sakuno's old uniform with Sakuno's old shoes. The shoes are a little larger than Kana's size, but she like it that way. The only thing Kana didn't like was the uniform. Sakuno clearly understood that disgusted look on Kana's face as she pulled that huge pink ribbon off it's right place and fastened a loose tie which somehow looks more like her uniform 'back in the present', no, it doesn't sound right, it should be 'later in the future'.

Sakuno was still in quite a whirl discovering a strange girl at her bed who coincidentally looks like Ryoma-kun. Who she never met yet Kana knew her, Sakuno. She wondered when she called the person right beside her now 'Kana' when she didn't attend school yesterday because she got flu. Maybe it's all a practical joke Tomo-chan comes up with to make her feel better. Well, if that's true, Tomo-chan is really good at it for she did fell better chatting with Kana.

It's really weird that they had met barely for about half an hour, yet Sakuno felt that she had known her all her life. She had that much fun arguing the different tactics of tennis with Kana that she didn't realize that bumped into somebody.

"Ouch!" Sakuno fell to the ground, her butt hitting the pavement. Her school bag was thrown one side, an attempt to break her fall. Now, it broke open so that her school items laying everywhere. 'Clatter, Cling, Clang.' Her pens fell onto the pavement, rolling in all directions.

It was rather unlucky that she had bumped into a high school student with a bad temper. Sakuno immediately stood up and bowed towards him, apologizing for her clumsiness. Instead of accepting her sincere apology, the high school student advance towards her, demanding money for dirtying his brand new shoes.

Poor Sakuno backed up, her delicate hand rummaging her messed up school bag for her wallet, there goes her allowance for the week. But before she could take out a single note, Kana took her wallet always and stuff it back into her bag. "Who the heck will pay for that pair of useless shoes?" Kana commented. With an obvious glare at the high school student direction, she turned her head defiantly and started gathering Sakuno fallen stuff and hook her arm and walked off.

Evidently the high school student wasn't that easy to be shaken off, he went up ahead and blocked off their way. Smirking, he said: "Pay up little missies or to taste a punch from me." Sakuno gasped and tried to pull Kana back when she stepped up right to him, preparing to give him a taste of her own punch. The high school student easily towered over that first year student, and so did that unknown student thought so. He smirked once more, looking down into Kana's cold golden eyes.

Kana jerked her right arm off Sakuno's grip and punched the jaw of that student. Sakuno was rather surprised at the strength Kana possessed when she jerked out of her grip but had no time to respond when the high school student fell backwards at the force of Kana's punch.

Kana stepped over the fallen high school student, saying the famous phrase: "Mada mada dane." She looked back at her younger mother now really clear why her father insist that her mother should not be left alone anywhere. Look at the kind of trouble she could get herself into!

Sakuno was stunned. And when Kana said that famous Ryoma's catchphrase, she doesn't think she could move along any longer. She glanced at Kana, fixedly pondering if she should ask if she happens to be his sister. She shook her head. 'No, it can't be! So far, Ryoma only had an older brother call Ryoga. There's no way he'll had a sister.'

Kana looked quizzically at her younger mother, concerned, she asked, "Ne, Oka, no I mean, Sakuno-chan, are you all right?"

Sakuno look at Kana's concerned eyes, a glazed look still present in the brown orbs of hers. She opened her mouth, preparing to ask, but the question didn't come. So Sakuno had her mouth open and close, not knowing what to say, much like a fish.

The high school student had already staggered upwards, rubbing his head which he bumped on the hard cement floor. Pointing at Sakuno and Kana, he said, "You wait! You'll surely regret this!"

Kana rolled her eyes, 'doesn't he get the idea yet?' She pulled her left hand, ready to give another punch but the high school student had ran off, scared of having another bump plus a sore jaw. Kana chuckled as she watches the retreating back of his. Sakuno on the other hand had forgotten her doubts, she pulled Kana close warning her: "Please. Next time, don't cause any trouble. It will be so much easier to pay him the money he requested. Didn't you heard, he threatened us! Who knows what might happen after school when I am heading home."

Kana assured her mother, "Oh don't worry, and I'll protect you. I mind as well lived at your side a few more days." Didn't caught the surprise look on her mother's face, she pulled her along the direction they initially taken, "Aren't we going to be late for school?"

She hadn't quite finished the sentence when the school bell rang started to ring distantly.

"Oh No!" The same words came out both of their mouth at the same time. Pausing to look at each other amused, they picked up their bag and sprint as fast as they could towards the gates of Seishun.

Little did they know, a guy just as late as they were, is also sprinting towards the gates, cursing Momo-chan sempai to ditch him when he didn't wake up in time. With his athletic body, he could easily reach the gate quickly, but it doesn't change the fact that he was already late.

However, his future wife hadn't a body quite like his, she was nearing the gate when she tripped over a stone, and she stumbled and nearly fell painfully to the ground. She looked up into the golden eyes and said, "Thank you, Kana-san."

But the eyes looked at her questioningly, and asked in a voice she knew very much, "Who's Kana-san?"


	4. Chapter 4: A pink disguise

Disclaimer: I do not own POT. I don't wish to either. But Kana is MINE!! :D

Author Notes:

I am terribly sorry for all those grammar mistakes and spelling errors. My English had always been rather bad, so please don't expect too much. And also sorry for the slow update. I really put myself into a spot this time. I really had no idea how to bring Kana back to time without causing too much 'trouble'..

* * *

Chapter 4: A pink disguise

~Flashback~

Ryoma slowed down when he reached the gates of Seishun. In the opposite direction, Sakuno and Kana are running late too. 'Ryuzaki late? Must be the flu had gotten to her.' Ryoma thought when he spotted Sakuno.

Ryoma's eyes caught in slow motion how Sakuno's left feet tripped over a protruding stone on the pavement. Before he could really stopped and think, he burst into a faster sprint catching Sakuno before she could fall to the ground, AGAIN.

With his right forearm snaked about her waist, Sakuno took a deep breath of relief. Ryoma too, unintentionally, a genuine smile on his face replaced the worry he hadn't much realized when he saw Sakuno tripping.

Her auburn head had turned and look into his eyes unafraid. Weird. Normally Sakuno looks at him with a different set of eyes, but he couldn't pinpoint on it. It was then Ryoma realized with a jolt that she was pretty light.

~End of Flashback~

She looked up into his golden eyes and said, "Thank you, Kana-san."

Ryoma felt even weirder now. Doesn't she recognize who he was? "Who's Kana-san?" Ryoma asked, whilst holding on to her.

Sakuno jolted in his arms and gasp a barely audible "Ryoma-kun!" Stumbling as she struggled to stand up on her feet, Ryoma couldn't help but smirk a little at her clumsiness.

By the time she stood up straight, facing Ryoma, Sakuno was already ten shades of crimson. How could she make the same mistake twice? First mistaking Kana as Ryoma-kun, now vice versa?

She stammered, "So-so-rry, Ryoma-kun." Ryoma looked at her strangely. "Sorry? That not the word I expected when I saved you from falling."

Kana stood at one side, watching her parents, one acting cool, the other, too shy. She smirked a little, looking a lot like her father and ducked into the school grounds, unnoticed by the pair of would-be lovers.

Sakuno was taken a little back by Ryoma's words. Bowing low once more, she stammered out the thanks Ryoma had originally wanted. Frantically, as though to remove the attention paid by Ryoma on herself, she searched for the disappeared Kana. Well, she did spot Kana, who was at least a good 100 meters away from her.

Standing under the school foyer, Kana waved energetically back at the shrink down size Sakuno to assure her that she's alright. And to 'prove' that she was late for class, she ran into the building not allowing a second chance of her standing too near to her father.

'That's too close. If mum haven't tripped and ALMOST fell, with Dad's wits, he will surely know that I looked way too much like him for a coincidence. Well, he spotted me in the end, but it should be too far to make out the color of my hair and eyes. Anyway, I got to find a way to change the color of my hair at least.' Kana thought as she randomly choose a hallway and sprinted down it.

Meanwhile, Ryoma asked curiously to the frantic Sakuno, "Lost something? What are you looking for?"

"Um?" Sakuno asked distractedly, until she spotted the waving Kana. "Oh, there is she," She continued softly. Ryoma followed the direction of Sakuno's gaze and spotted a young girl far away, waving back. Soon, she ran into the school building. Ryoma guessed that she's, too, also late for school.

"That's Kana-san," said Sakuno, answering the first question Ryoma had imposed on her today. Ryoma looked back at her strangely, "I don't see many similarities between that Kana-san and me. Does my face look a lot like a girl?" Ryoma teased.

Sakuno pouted. Ever since, Ryoma came back from America during the third year, they had grown a pretty close friendship along with the usual trio gang since first year, Horio, Katsuo and Kachiro, surprisingly even Tomoka too. And somehow, Ryoma half the time ended up with her most of the time since Tomoka usually burst into fights with Horio with the other two acting peace maintainers.

Sakuno was about to tell Ryoma how much Kana looks like him when she was interrupted by the second bell signaling the closure of school gates. Without a second word, Ryoma grasped Sakuno's hand and they ran together to the building that Kana had gone to.

~Back to Kana~

Still sprinting down the hall, Kana noted the absence of students. 'It must be the time for the school curriculum activities.' As she neared a corner, Kana gave no signs of slowing down, which was rather unfortunate for…

"CRASH! BANG!! PI-ANG!"

The sound of two person collision and breaking glass was enough for anyone to open the classroom doors and take a look what had happened, if they were there. And luckily, no one heard the commotion except for the ex-regulars. Kana pushed herself up from the ground, finding that she was dripping wet in pink. Opposite her was Inui, whose back was facing her. After locating his specs and push them up on his nose, he then faced Kana and help her to her feet.

"I am terribly sorry," Inui started to apologized.

Kana caught hold of her reflection by the window. She frowned, noticed that even her eyebrows are dyed pink. The borrowed uniform from Sakuno was totally ruined with the shirt half dyed pink and the edge of the skirt also in a soggy pink mess. The end of her hair dripped with pink solution and luckily, the solution is odorless.

"What the hell?!!!!!"

~Flashback~

"Are you sure about this, Inui sempai?" Momoshiro stared at the flask swirling with a suspiciously pink color solution. Eiji immediately jumped behind Momoshiro using him as a shield when Inui took out his so call 'medicine'.

"Positive. I had tried this product on myself already, and it proves 78% better than any normal flu medicine," Inui said confidently, his glass glinting.

No one look convinced, except Fuji with his smile on as always. Eiji nudged Oishi and whispered into his ear, "DO SOMETHING! I highly doubt poor Sakuno-chan will ever survive that pinky stuff!"

Oishi stepped forward reluctantly, "Inui, I don't think that it such a good idea. After all, Ryuzaki-san isn't that strong physically as us. She might not be able to take it, and if something ever happens to her, Ryuzaki sensei will never let us off."

"Ya! Not to mention Ochibi-chan! He'll kill us." Eiji piped up.

"According to data, there will be a 87% chance Ryuzaki-chan will be able to take it as long as it's odorless. And there is 93% chance that Ryoma will certainly do something if he found out that Ryuzaki-chan ever drink any of my juice." Inui continued calmly.

In an undertone, Momoshiro added, "Ya, odorless. Tasteless will be so much better." Eiji and Kaidoh nodded silently in agreement.

"Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Ryoma will act in the case of Ryuzaki-chan," Inui continued, totally missing out Momoshiro's comment, he turned and continued down the empty corridor.

Fuji nodded. "Saa. It MIGHT after all be quite interesting."

Shoulders slumped, Eiji said, "Yup. I thought you would say that."

Kawamura speak up, "Maybe Inui's medicine might work. After all, it's partially our fault that Ryuzaki-chan got sick."

Kaidoh snorted, "Does the 'situation of her fainting' is included in the 'medicine' would work part?"

Tezuka spoke out too, Sakuno was like a younger sister to him, there will be no way he stand aside doing nothing. "We got to find a way to stop Inui from handing his invented medicine to Ryuzaki-chan. He's already on the move. Don't let your guards down."

Hearing that, the regulars started to follow Inui but were stopped short by the sound of collision and breaking glass.

"YES! SAKUNO-CHAN IS SAVED!" Eiji cheered.

A shout rang across the almost empty hall, "What the hell?!!!!!"

"But someone is not." Eiji added in a deathly whisper.

~End of flashback~

Kana was angry. VERY angry.

It's not a good thing to hear or stay near her when Kana was angry. If Ryu will there, he would have immediately run off the opposite direction. He knew better than to TRY to cope with a 'seriously not in a good mood' Kana.

Although standing at least 30 cm shorter than the younger Inui, Inui still had to back off as Kana pointed her finger accusingly at him. She wailed out loud, "This is NOT my uniform! See what you have done? Look at my hair, my hands…" she spotted the pink stain on her forefinger nail, "EVEN MY NAILS!"

"URGH!" Small crunches of glass can be heard as Kana stepped out of the pool of pink solution on the floor. The 'too large for her' shoes squelch horribly as Kana walked towards the broken round bottom flask still filled with some pink liquid she spotted. Sounds of pattering feet drew closer as the rest of the graduated regulars arrived. There are gasps of horrors and an "Opps" from Momoshiro.

The culprit was still there, scratching the back of his head trying to look innocent. Kana picked up the broken flask and thrust it under Inui's nose. "How do I, GET THE STAINS OFF?" she shouted the last few words. The regulars winced under her voice, even Tezuka twitched a little.

"Um, actually according to my data, there is only a 5% chance of getting the stains off right away." Inui said sheepishly. "But…"

"WHAT?!"

The regulars winced once more. Tezuka's eyebrow twitched once more.

"But, the color will eventually wear out by itself."

Kana raised a pink eyebrow at him, "How long?" she asked, in a normal tone. Inui breathed a sigh of relief. But he guessed that his answer put the unfortunate girl in any better mood.

"Um, 5 to 10 days?"

And there goes Kana again. She continued screaming and shouting how she's going to get into trouble with her father and also her mother and a whole lot of things that doesn't make any sense to the regulars. Even though Kana knew that it was her fault that she should have slowed down when she reached the corner of the hallway, she was furious on how the father and his future son had made her landed up in this mess. This PINK mess!

"Anyway, you shouldn't make all these weird solutions in the first place! You will cause SO much trouble in the future! This is so stupid! I don't see how your solutions can help in body stamina when it tastes so disgusting."

In a threatening pose, Kana once again directly pointed at one of her future tennis coach, "Saharadu Inui! Get this simple fact into your head: YOUR SO-CALLED BODY STAMINA DRINK IS USELESS!"

As Kana went on, Momoshiro couldn't help but nodded in silently agreement behind Inui.

Suddenly Kana stop, she stared at her reflection by the window in wonder. Kana suddenly continues calmly, with excitement instead of anger "Nope! On second thoughts, your juices ARE WONDERFUL!" Kana gave Inui a hug about his middle (much to his surprise) and poured the rest of the remaining pink solution over her hair that are not completely dyed.

Momoshiro and Eiji watched opened mouth at her latest announcement. "Um, Inui-sempai? That juice wasn't just simple body stamina is it? It must have some…." Momoshiro said, unable to continue.

"solution to change people's mind and made them a little… abnormal?" Eiji finished for Momoshiro.

No one answered their question. The regulars continued staring dumbfounded at Kana's sudden change of mood. She even hummed as she blew the ends of her long dyed hair dry. "You don't happen to have a hair dryer? It will take hours to dry my hair at this rate," Kana looked up at the regulars, as though expecting them to hand over a hair dryer immediately.

20 minutes later, Kana stood in the middle of the tennis storeroom with completely dried, dyed pink hair dressed in another old set of tennis player outfit. Unlike the uniform Sakuno had kindly lent her, this outfit was several sizes too large for Kana. As the t-shirt drooped out her left shoulder, Kana signed and asked, "Any others?"

Eiji examined Kana's height and size. "Nope. If Ochibi hadn't dumped his old ones off, his first year tennis clothes would be the perfect size for you."

Momoshiro agreed. He handed Kana his old regular's jacket, "Meanwhile used this to warm yourself. We'll find Sakuno-chan to help out. She's the captain for the girl's tennis team, I'm sure that there will be a perfect size for you there."

Kana accepted the faded blue jacket emblazed with the word "Seigaku". She wrapped it around her much smaller body and zipped it all the way up. Although the pants were much too large for her that she had to tie a knot in order that it won't fell off her waist, the tennis clothes provide little warmth in the cold winter air. The jacket fell to her mid thighs, Kana gave another sigh. It seems that she couldn't peacefully pass a single moment without ending up with some trouble.

Kana now stood shivering in the girl's tennis storerooms. Warmth flooded over her almost frozen body, as she gladly accepted Sakuno's hug. When Sakuno first saw Kana she doesn't recognized her due to the dyed hair. But after a rather confusing 10 minutes of explanation with Inui, Eiji and Momoshiro trying to speak at the same time (without paying much attention to the freezing Kana out on the girl's tennis court) she grasped the situation finally and agreed to lent another set of clothing for poor Kana.

As the rest of the ex-regulars waited outside, Sakuno had pulled out her old tennis clothes. Handing over some warm slacks instead of the usual pink skirt, Kana now looks like a replica of the younger Sakuno without the same color of eyes and hair. "Anyway, he might have spoiled my newly done hair dyed greenish black color, maybe pink doesn't look all that bad on me either," Kana easily lied to Sakuno about the real color of her hair.

Wrapping a thick woolen scarf about Kana's neck, Sakuno lectured, "Anyway, you should have know better than to run about the corners. You were lucky that you weren't hurt by the broken glasses!"

"Are this necessary?" Kana unraveled the scarf, "This will awfully come into way while playing tennis."

"So you DID play tennis too!" Sakuno said in surprised, "Ryoma-kun was right."

Kana tensed. What did her father said about her? She was absolutely sure to be standing a good distance away from him.

* * *

Guys, I really sorry to end now. But I am really tired. Please wait for the next chapter.

I know. I know. I took WAY too much time to update. I will try my best okay? Sch had started once again, and it's wearing me out already although it had only been the first week.

Anyway, please don't forgot to REVIEW! :D Thanks!

Oh yeah, I used a lot of flashback in this chapt. For those who hated flashbacks, I am sry. I am too lazy to change the top part that I finished. So I just added a flashback to make things easier. It saves a lot of editing time. :D haha… Please understand this lazy author.


	5. Chapter 5: 13 of Feb

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own POT

Author Notes: This story is turning out longer than I thought….

* * *

Chapter 5: 13 of February

"Ryoma-kun wants to meet you too," Sakuno added, oblivious to Kana's stiffened pose. "He was intrigued by your athletic sense."

"Huh?" Kana forgotten to keep quiet in case she let anything slip.

Sakuno looked questioningly at her now, "Ryoma-kun. Don't you know him? He's quite famous in the Tennis world. People say that he's one of the youngest genius tennis player stars."

Kana hurriedly nodded her head. Of course she knew. After returning back to America after one year in Japan, Ryoma had made his name over in America in just one year before deciding to return to Japan for studies. Only when he was 21 then he decided to join the grand slam and won the first place. The cup was a surprise for Sakuno which Ryoma so foolishly used it in place of a ring to ask for her hand for marriage.

Sakuno tucked back the scarf in place, "Anyway, I arranged with Ryoma that I will try to find you and bring you to him. Since sempai-tachi are here, we can all go to the boy's court together. I guess Ryoma-kun would want to test out your skills and NO!" Sakuno tucked back the scarf once again when Kana stubbornly unraveled it once again. "You are to keep this on even while you are playing tennis."

Kana pouted. 'First her hair and now this scarf? Why does she always have to bear stuff that will come in way while playing tennis?'

Rejoining the regulars outside, Eiji whistled, "You look so much like a girl in Sakuno-chan outfit than the school uniform." Kana eyes narrowed but didn't say anything. In the future, Momoshiro-jichan and Eiji-jichan often teased her on her less than lady-like attitude.

As usual, Oishi is the only one who has enough sense to introduce themselves, "We are really sorry what had happened just now. My name is Oishi and these are the ex-tennis regulars players. "At my left, the captain, Tezuka; on my right are Fuji, Eiji, Momoshiro, Kawamaru, Kaidoh and Inui." Chorus of "Hi!", "Yo!" and a "fsuu" were issued as Oishi introduced the respectively members.

Backgrounds of mumbles were heard. The tennis girls were gathered in group and were all looking in Kana's direction. Excited whispers were issued as they discussed the latest development of events. And judging by the jealous look most of them were giving, Kana felt really uncomfortable by the amount of attention the ex-regulars are paying to her.

"I could swear that she was wearing Fuji-sempai's jacket just now!" a high pitched whisper broke out.

Momoshiro said in undertone, "Actually, it was mine."

"Ooh. That girl is really lucky isn't she? I haven't even met her before! She's must be a transfer student. But how lucky! Only her first day and she had the regulars fawning over her. It's so NOT fair! I'll bet that that bitch is planning to have them all by herself by tomorrow! It's irritating that she even have such pretty looks" the other girl said, sneaking another glance over at Kana.

Momoshiro couldn't stand it. Before he could shout out that the jacket wasn't Fuji's, Kana dragged him away from the court with the help of the stronger guys. Eiji panted at the effort he took to drag Momoshiro away, "Stop being jealous! Anyway, you already have Ann don't you?"

Momoshiro grunted, propelling himself forward against the force of three others (Kana, Eiji and Kawamura) "That doesn't mean I will only receive one girl's chocolate!"

Kaidoh rolled his eyes, "Fshuuu. You won't be getting any from the girls over there. Anyway, most of them will go after Tezuka or Fuji sempai and certainly not you, porcupine head!"

Momoshiro changed his charging direction, instead he charged towards Kaidoh. Kana spotted trouble and threw an abandoned tennis racket over at Kawamura.

"BURNING!"

Another trouble starts.

After another 10 minutes of confusion where almost every regular got hit by the recklessly swinging racket by Kawamura, the fight ended with Tezuka cold voice of "35 laps about the boy's court later."

"Jeez, why are you guys all here? I thought you long already graduated!" Kana said once things return back to normal. The group fell into pace, walking towards the boy's court at the other side of the school.

Tezuka unexpectedly answer, "We came back to check on Ryuzaki-chan." Turning back to the captain of the girls' tennis team, he bowed low and apologized, "Sorry, for yesterday."

The rest of the regulars follow suit, bowing low and apologizing.

Sakuno shook her head and hands, "Oh, please don't do that. It's not entirely your fault anyway; my body isn't too well off either."

Eiji said guiltily, "That's why. We knew that your body isn't too good yet we still called you out.

Kana confused gaze switched from one to the other guilty face of the regulars, "Why? What happen?"

Oishi: "It was all because of a moment of fun…"

Flashback

It's already February but the weather isn't getting any warmer, instead the weather reporter promised a possible light snowfall over the city of Tokyo.

"Remember to drive slowly and carefully. A simple act of consideration can save lives." The weather girl finished before the TV screen switched the scene back to the news reader, "Thank you, Ringo-chan. Now, we will proceed to the sports section…."

Sakuno yawned but stop when the screen display a tennis match in progress. She intently studies the footwork of the two players when her phone vibrated hard on the coffee table in front of her. She jumped slightly at the sudden interruption and picked it up when she saw Eiji sempai name displayed.

"Hello, Eiji-sempai?" she started.

"Ah, Sakuno-chan! Are you free now? We are over at Kawamura's Sushi house now…"

It seems that the phone had been snatched over by someone before Eiji could finish his sentence.

"Hello? Sakuno-chan? Momoshiro here. Come over and join us will you? Kawamura sempai promised us a buffet today totally free of charge!" the excited eager voice of Momoshiro blast through the phone while poor Sakuno winced.

"Um, okay. Is Obachan with you?"

"Of course! But she's leaving, going back to Seishun again. She seriously doesn't like to stay long on this kind of occasion… Eiji-sempai! Don't grab the phone like that. Can't you see that I am talking to Sakuno-chan? Wait for your turn….!"

Vaguely at the background, Sakuno could hear Eiji's whining voice, "Momo! You are the one who snatched it from me first! It's my cell phone!" then a cold, cheeky voice said, "Kawamura sempai! Catch this!" Sakuno recognized Ryoma-kun voice which is closely followed by a "BURNING! YOU TWO SHOULDN'T FIGHT OVER A PHONE! HAND IT OVER TO ME RIGHT NOW! I SHALL TELL SAKUNO-CHAN ABOUT THE SUSHI BUFFET!"

Sakuno sweat dropped over the commotion she heard. Not long after, Ryoma had taken over the phone. "Ryuzaki sensei said that she'll pick you up before she went back to school. That saved the probability that you getting lost." Sakuno tried to defend herself, but Ryoma continued, "Remember to wear something thick that can keep you warm from the snow fight." The phone line went dead.

The phone call ended so abruptly that Sakuno sat stunned still holding to the phone. 'Snow fight? Eiji sempai didn't mention anything about it.'

20 minutes later, a honked could be heard loud outside the small Ryuzaki residence. "I'm coming, Oba-chan!" Sakuno shouted whilst pulling on another layer of pink sweater she finally decided after pulling almost 3 quarters of her wardrobe out before realizing that it's too cold to wear the white spaghetti strip dress she originally decided on.

After almost five rounds of Sushi over at the Kawamura's, Momoshiro finally declared that he couldn't stomach another sushi. Compliments to the chef were given before the as usual pack of students containing both middle and high schoolers headed out to a familiar outdoor tennis court. The promised snow had started falling and the court is already partially covered with white snowflakes.

Sakuno shook her head and voice out, "We can't play tennis in this condition. Furthermore, the snow is getting thicker!"

Eiji piped up, "Eh? Who says we are playing tennis? It's SNOWBALL FIGHT TIME!"

Before anyone could even figure out where to start and who's on their team. A snowball had already flown into Momoshiro face.

"EIJI-SEMPAI! THAT'S DIRTY, I HAVEN'T HAD TIME TO EVEN PREPARE MYSELF!" Momoshiro complained while he bent and roll a ball of snow and aimed it carefully towards Eiji's face.

Eiji sticks out his tongue and dodged out of the way. Unluckily, of all people it should hit, it hit Kaidoh.

"Opps." Momoshiro said softly.

"PORCUPINE HEAD!"

And the snowball fight starts.

Half an hour later, the middle schoolers combined with Eiji and Momoshiro fighting against Oishi, Kawamura, Kaidoh and Fuji. Although the opposing team is seriously outnumbered, with Kawamura's burning power and Fuji's wits, Eiji's team suffered with plenty of snowballs hitting hard right at their face. As usual, Tezuka sat at one side, colder than the snow.

Eiji shouted over the strong wind, "MOU! IT'S NO FAIR! KAWAMURA! IF YOU REALLY HAD BURNING POWER, MELT THOSE SNOW. IT'S REALLY COLD YOU KNOW?"

A 'splat' could be heard when Eiji received another face full of snow. Fuji was smiling over the other end of the tennis court.

"FUJI!"

Another hour of snowball fighting went on, the guys didn't felt that an hour had pass, but poor Sakuno is already freezing behind the boulder of snow they had built to hide behind. The snow had built over another few inches while the light snowfall promised by the weather girl seems not to light after all. The snow fell thick and it seems that it will go on till the night.

Tomo-chan doesn't seem to feel the bite of the cold. On the other hand, she was rather into it. Her gloved hand expertly sent the snowball flying into the side of Fuji's face while cheers emitted from the not-freshman-anymore trio.

Sakuno teeth chattered; rubbing her gloved hands together, an attempt to keep herself warm. Ryoma who didn't want to play at first, calling it a childish game joined after Momoshiro hit his face, laughing like a lunatic calling out, "Who's childish?" Ryoma then rolled a ball of snow and aimed it over at the laughing Momoshiro shouting a "YOU!" back. Now, he sat beside Sakuno, tired from all the screaming of Eiji and Momoshiro, he unravels his own green scarf and gave it to Sakuno. "I told you to wear something warm," he said, somewhat caringly. Sakuno blushed but accepted the scarf; she decided not to tell him that she spent 20 minutes on what to wear forgetting that it was snowing.

Only until two hours of snowall fight, the ex-regulars then felt that they had had enough. Meanwhile, Sakuno had already been handed not only an extra scarf, but also, Ryoma's outer winter coat.

"Ano, Ryoma-kun? Don't you feel cold?" Sakuno asked softly, feeling bad that Ryoma had to bear the cold because of her.

Ryoma rolled his eyes, "Yeah. But I think it's better off than to let you freeze to death."

Sakuno bowed her head, feeling rather sorry for herself. She covered her mouth and sneezed for the tenth time.

Tomo-chan who now silently sat down by her other side ask concerned, "Sakuno, are you okay? You don't happen to have flu do you?" She pulled out her gloved and places her hand over Sakuno's forehead.

"Eh?" Sakuno said, feeling quite heavy. Her head had been throbbing hard since the past 15 minutes, and the scarf about herself had stop providing warmth, instead, she felt rather suffocated with it.

"Sakuno! You are having a high fever….."

Sakuno heard Tomo-chan exclaimed halfway before fainting.

End of Flashback

Kana raised an eyebrow when Oishi finished.

"Two hours of snowball fight?" She asked skeptically. 'No wonder Okasan fainted….'

A light red blush appeared over Oishi face. He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed to cause Sakuno to faint while they got carried away in the game.

Kana shook her newly dyed head; "You are not tennis players, but monsters..." she was cut off halfway by a "Hn."

Ryoma was standing at the gate looking directly at her.

His gaze travel through his ex team mates before landing on Sakuno. He tilted his head one side and said, "You are taking too long, I thought you ran into trouble."

"Trouble? Yes! Lots too." Eiji said energetically, glomping Ryoma at once.

"Eiji-sempai, I can't breathe!" Ryoma struggled. When Eiji let go of him (under Kana obvious smirk), Ryoma massage his throat, 'I didn't mean you, I meant Sakuno."

Luckily for her, none of the regulars noticed the slight blush appeared on Sakuno's cheeks. Their attention had shifted to the recent pink stranger who stepped boldly up to Ryoma. "You want a match?" Kana blurted out directly.

'She's challenging Ryoma to a match?' The same thought ran pass each regulars head. Ever since Ryoma became the Captain of the boy's tennis team, no one in the team challenge him to play. In fact, he does the challenging. The team members rather do thirty laps about the court then to suffer ten minutes in the court with him. Ryoma became someone more fearful than Fuji-sempai.

Ryoma looked at the pink stranger who looks determinedly back at him with a pair of honey colored eye. He doesn't know why, but he felt strangely uncomfortably under her gaze which seems so familiar yet foreign at the same time. But from what he witnessed this morning, the match could prove to be quite an interesting one…

Flashback

"Kana-san?" Ryoma muttered quietly to himself when he spotted the girl waving in a distance. "I don't see many similarities between that Kana-san and me. Does my face look a lot like a girl?" He purposely said, teasing Sakuno.

But then he spotted something that made him thought better of the so call 'Kana-san'. After waving, Kana had turn about, preparing to rush for class, without noticing a pillar almost right behind her. Ryoma assumed that she would surely, for the distance between the pillar and her (less than 30cm away), knocked her head hard for there isn't time to dodge.

However, Kana dodged it.

It was thanks to Ryoma perfect eyesight and his ability to spot movement in detail that he could see how Kana manage to decide to step out right horizontally right almost immediately after turning about. His eyes widen slightly, for only a high level sport player with acute sense of prediction could execute such moves so quickly.

'Split step?' The thought ran past in Ryoma's head.

The second bell rang for the day. Ryoma grasped Sakuno's hand and they ran together to the building that Kana had gone to.

End of flashback

"You are the Kana-san?" Ryoma asked the first question that could come to his mind. He was curious how her gaze could make him so uncomfortable even though she stands 20 to 30cm shorter than him.

"The last time I've check, yeah, I am the 'Kana-san'," Kana replied cheekily, noticing her father discomfort towards her.

'After the change of my hair color, no matter how smart Echizen Ryoma may be, Oyaji would NEVER know that I am his daughter from the future!' Kana thought, obviously pleased about her 'accidental' disguise.

Ryoma eyes then caught what she was wearing. If he wasn't wrong and remembered correctly, he could swear that the shirt she had on was Sakuno's. 'She wore it every time when she was having her own tennis practices.' The thought went pass. Then he caught the outer jacket Kana was wearing, the old Seigaku jacket. The design had changed last year, so the old Seigaku jacket had been a symbol of the graduated third year players during Ryoma's freshman year.

"Fuji sempai's?" he asked, not bothering to ask properly.

"You and all the other people…" Kana said, and quickly added before Momoshiro could make another din, "It's Momoshiro sempai's."

Ryoma was taken aback, for Fuji is a gentleman who would do something like that. Who would knew that Momoshiro had changed to be a rather gentleman than an overgrown school boy kid he used to be? Ryoma privately think that his relationship with Ann must have changed him.

'Oh yes, Echizen. And it seems that it changed you too.'

The thought came and went. Ryoma was shocked at what his inner self said to him.

"Anyway, back to the subject. A proper match might be too much for a girl to challenge the Team Captain of the Boy's tennis team from the school which turns out victorious in the entire Japan." Kana said, admitting in her heart that even though she might return back in time, she would not even be the match of her fifteen year old father.

"Hn," Ryoma said, "Running away already?"

Kana flashed him a look which Ryoma was rather taken aback; it seems to the exact same eyes of his staring back at him, fearless and cocky. Yet, yet, it contains something that would never exist in his. That is 'admitting'.

Kana continued, disregarding her father's momentarily outlook of surprise, "However, we'll play three balls. Each of the ball you missed, you'll owe me one promise."

"Huh?" Momoshiro said.

If Ryoma was taken aback more and more by the appearance of this girl, he is now at the edge where he couldn't be any more surprise by anyone anymore. Kana looked at him, waiting for his reply, knowing very well that he would not step away from the challenge.

Not that he wouldn't, is that he couldn't.

Eiji is at a loss of words. No one has ever been so confident to offer Ryoma a challenge directly, less than to even state requirements. (Unless you counted the one he had with the monkey king over at Hyotei.) The ex-regulars kept their silent, each at their own awe for the newcomer. Inui has already busying scribbling in his ever ready notebook, muttering some words. Fuji caught on some words that he was muttering to himself, "85% identical attitude…"

'Interesting girl.' "Fine, I'll take your challenge." Ryoma said, "Who's in service?"

"Alternately, you take two, or I take two, I'll let you choose." Kana answered, looking around for a spare racket. "Anyway, you'll lose no matter what." She added.

'What attitude!' Even Tezuka was mildly surprised by the amount of cockiness this girl displayed, she could be a par on Ryoma. Fuji smiled, nodding to himself, "A match that would be worth to watch."

"Kana!" Sakuno whispered urgently into her ear, "He's the…"

"Yeah, I know. The youngest tennis genius officially recognized in America." Kana cut in, taking the pink tennis racket that Sakuno had brought along. "To think that Ryu and I are recognized as the tennis world champion's genius kids." She added in an undertone.

Swinging the pink racket in her left hand, Kana tested the weight while Ryoma ordered out an empty court for them.

Now, Kana was the one who whispered cheekily into Sakuno's ears, "If I ever got him to promise me something, is there ANYTHING you want me to ask on your behalf?"

Sakuno blushed a deep shade of red, unlike the slight pink blush Kana had seen so much in the future. But nevertheless, Kana laughed out the same way as she will do.

15 minutes passed by before the father and daughter pair stood on opposite side of the court. The wind picked up, Kana's hair flowing along the direction of the wind.

"You should cut your hair short; it'll come in the way when you play." Ryoma said, the same line he always 'advises' to Sakuno.

Kana pouted, "You better try to remember what you say in the future…" Annoyed she was at her hair for a long time, but it was her father that won't allow her to cut it short.

"Rough or smooth?" She asked Ryoma. "The one who guess wrong would have to do with only one service. Fair?"

"Smooth." Ryoma replied, not bothering to look back as he moves to the back of the court.

Kana twist the pink racket; it spins for a moment before falling to one side, the 'R' inverted.

"Bad luck, I got two services." Kana said, grinning, a plan already forming in her head.

Kana noted her father held the racket in his left hand. She smirked, following likewise. Smoothly, a move she had practice and perfected it years ago, she threw the green tennis ball up, jumped the right height and angle, and hit the tennis ball at the right spot.

It zoomed towards the other side of the court where Ryoma was already waiting and bounced off, at an angle so close to his face.

Gasps were heard from the ex-regulars and the tennis players who so often seen the style being displayed by their tennis captain. His very own professional skill, "The Twist Serve".

* * *

_Reviews Reviews! PLS! _


	6. Chapter 6: 3 Promises

Disclaimer: I don't own POT, only my Kana and Ryu, Itaki, Saruka… As long as you don't see them in anime or manga, most likely, they are mine….

Author Notes: I actually wrote these before I finishing the chapter 5: 13 of Feb… Unbelievable

* * *

Chapter 6: 3 Promises (_San Yakosu_)

"Tomorrow's Valentine…" Kana thought, not too innocently.

~Flashback~

Buildings flashed by as Echizen Kana stared moodily outside the window of the limo car. Not really seeing what's in front of her eyes, 11 year old Kana reflected what the teacher had wrote on the corner of the blackboard.

"13 of February," she whispered to herself.

She dreaded Valentine's Day. It's the day where she found herself to be in very awkward situations. Last year, she opens her locker to find herself to be drowned with letters, balloons and flowers, and strangely enough, a cake. It shook a bit, it's weight supported by endless piles of not very strong papers before falling onto Kana's surprised face.

On the very same year, she went home with her hair plaited neatly, finished with a huge disgustingly pink bow. Red rose petals were stuck to the layers of her greenish black hair, so she looked as though she had just walk through a shower of roses. She was even wearing on makeup and been perfumed by someone. She will look beautiful, IF she was scowling at the state she was in.

Ryu had been off better. At least, he might be cover with roses, but had not been strapped to a chair and suffer the humiliation Kana did. In fact, he dragged home a box of chocolates which he had not been able to finish even after three months.

Kana now had reached home, dragging her heavy self to her bedroom located at the third floor of the mansion. She dumped her bag onto her study table and picked up the photo taken last year. She wonders what kind of new trick Amy (Kid of Kevin's) would play this year. Maybe she could convince her mum allowing her to skip school, or maybe go back to Japan to visit grandpa Nanjiroh.

Ryu popped into her room and saw his sister holding on the photo that shows her scowling in the pink ribbon. "Let's go swimming. Maybe it can make you feel better about tomorrow," he suggested before leaving to get his stuff.

Kana sighed, who knows? Maybe doing laps might make her feel better. She went for a quick shower and put on her swimming costume. Picking up the fresh towel laid by the house maid, she wrapped her blue bathrobe around herself and made her way to the back garden to the pool.

Crossing the hallway barefooted, she went down the carpeted curved stairs and walk in the the direction to the back of the mansion. It's kind of irritating to walk so long in your own personal house.

Passing the kitchen on her way, Kana paused when she detected the sweet smell of melting chocolates. Kana's stomach rumbled, for she hadn't eaten much because of the '13 of February'. Silently, she pushed open the slightly open door. Her mum was there alone, her hair tied up neatly in a bun, pouring melted chocolate into moulds.

Echizen Sakuno looked up and spotted her daughter standing by the door. "Kana? Swimming now? You know that the weather is still rather cold…"

Kana nodded, "Ryu had gone to heat up the pool already. It won't be that cold." She stepped into the warm kitchen filled with delicious chocolate-ly smell. Her stomach rumbled loudly. "I am hungry," she added, unnecessarily.

Sakuno laughed, she spooned out some of the thick melted chocolate and hand it over to Kana. Kana tasted the rich chocolate. It flows smoothly in her mouth, bitter at first, but leaving a sweet aftertaste.

"Oishi!" Kana exclaimed.

Sakuno smiled, continuing to pour the melted chocolate into its mould. "This is the chocolate that I made for your Dad when I was fifteen."

Kana walked over to the refrigerator and rummage through it. Reaching over a glass, she poured out fresh milk she found from the fridge. "Eh? Why so special? Fifteen year old romance repeated now today?"

Sakuno blushed. However, her hand never stopped working, still pouring the chocolate in smooth speed. Years of hard training had polished the clumsy shy girl to be quite a professional in the kitchen. "Because, that very year is a very special year to me," Sakuno said, finished pouring the melted chocolates. "That year is when…."

"You started dating Dad?" Kana finished the sentence, helping her mum to put the chocolate filled moulds into the fridge to harden. Sakuno nodded, muttering softly to herself, "Yes, it's one of the three promises…"

Sakuno didn't know, but Kana heard it.

'San Yakosu?'

~End of Flashback~

Ryoma looked where the ball had bounced off, rolling pathetically on the clay ground after displaying such a performance just now. He had been stunned when he found the ball flying pass his face, his very own skill displayed by a first year girl. The speed at which the ball flew wasn't that slow either. It could match up to his with hard training for a year.

He smirked, speaking, "Eh… Your skills seem more interesting than your talk."

Kana shoot back, "You won't be smiling for more. That's already one promise you owed me."

True enough, the smirked slipped off Ryoma's face, replaced by a scowl. He totally had forgotten the promises.

Ryoma picked up the fallen ball, taking note not to be taken by surprise by Kana. Her skills might not be a match for his, but her surprise attacks are enough to leave anyone a deep impression.

"Since you started it," Ryoma said, throwing the tennis ball in the air executing the exact same twist serve, only much more powerful than Kana's.

Kana had been expecting this. There is no way her father would stand by and watch his technique got stolen without getting his 'revenge'. She quickly runs towards the ball falling destination at full speed. She easily slides, and jumped off at the right moment, hitting a Drive B ball. It bounced off but was reached by Ryoma easily.

'Not gonna get cheated that easily this time.' Ryoma thought winningly as he lobbed the ball high up.

Kana cursed her father innerly for reacting fast enough for this surprise, looping the ball while she was up front the court proved to be a winning shot. But…

With a move she learnt from Keiji (Eiji's son), she somersaulted backwards and quickly jumped up high with a push at her heels. Kana displayed the same move as seen by Momoshiro so often, the 'Dunk smash'.

However, it was until the ball hit the ground and rolls along without bouncing did the regulars and Ryoma realized that it was 'Cool drive', not 'Dunk smash'.

Kana landed lightly, she gave a 'phew' sighed of relief for her quick actions and scheme. Seems that she still managed to fool and surprise them.

Ryoma narrowed his eyes; he was not happy how she cheated him.

Kana raised an eyebrow. "It MAY seems to be like dunk smash, but it isn't!" she grinned. "2 promises!"

Ryoma cursed, however not loud enough to be heard by the on watchers. The match had attracted attention. It wasn't everyday that you can watch the captain having a match. Mumbles were heard for the second time of the day as rumors pass on back and forth discussing the recent turns of events.

Kana took out a new tennis ball, bouncing it with her left hand.

"It's time," She whispered.

Fuji and Ryoma spotted the change at the same time.

Ryoma eyes narrowed for the countless time, while Fuji gave out a surprised, "eh?"

"What is it, Fuji-sempai?"

"It's just that…"

Fuji was interrupted by as Kana served for the second time, the same twist serve as before, however differently this time. It was much faster, and powerful, leaving an imprint on the clay ground as it bounces off, hitting the green fence surrounding the court.

Ryoma said it out loud this time, "No way!"

Kana raised her racket and put it on her shoulder triumphly, "Yeah, that's right. _Nitōryū. _And I am actually right handed."

"Some find it unbelievable because I got a twin brother and father who were both left hander, so they assumed naturally I would be left hander too. But, too bad, I am a dominant right hander."

It's true. It was world renown that the famous tennis star was a left hander, and it became so used to everyone that eventually his kids were end up like him. And the fact was even confirmed when Ryu began to show signs of having his left hand as his dominant hand. However, some way or another, Kana didn't became a left hander. She hated that fact that just because Ryoma was known as a left hander tennis star, everyone assumed that his kids will also be left hander.

But in this case, Kana really made it to her own advantage. The noise among the crowd rose, and rumors swapped even furiously than before.

"San yakosu!" Kana said, grinning from ear to ear.

~~~15 minutes later~~~

"Chey, she's rather good." Ryoma admitted reluctantly.

Sakuno smiled, knowing full well that if the match were to be a full one, Kana won't stand a chance to win. She merely took the short match to her advantage, surprising Ryoma with his very own moves.

"Whatever. You lost, so…" Kana pulled out the paper 'contract' he signed earlier. "3 misses, 3 promises." She smirked and added in an undertone so that only Ryoma could hear her, "and none of them will be easy to do either." Ryoma gulped internally.

"Good job, Kana-san!" congratulate Oishi, "Who's your coach? Must be a professional…"

"No one," Kana cut short his words, "Anyway, I need to assign some promise task to Mr. Loser-san here…" Kana pulled Ryoma to a remote place.

Further and further they stepped away from the curious group, Eiji and Momoshiro were itching to stalk them but Kana wasn't taking her eyes off them. Walking along occasionally glancing back to check that the ex-regulars won't attempting to eavesdrop.

"What did you want exactly?" said a rather annoyed Ryoma-kun, wondering why he had to stand right outside the old shed used to store rackets and balls in the past.

"I assigning you two tasks," Kana said, looking directly into those familiar golden eyes.

"The first one is…"

Kana sighed, hard to believe what is going to come out from her mouth, "I need somewhere to crash tonight. Can you arrange that for me?"

Ryoma was taken aback. "Eh?"

"Yea, yea. But I couldn't rely on Sakuno, or even ask her for help. She'll ask questions. LOTS of questions." Kana turned and look directly at him once more, "and you won't." she continued as a matter of fact tone.

Kana was right. Ryoma never bother to stick too much into other people's business. He looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded in agreement.

Kana beamed. "And the second one is that…"

The silence dragged. Ryoma feel rather uncomfortable under Kana's smirk.

"Tomorrow is valentine right? You will receive not a lot, but TONS of chocolates." Kana reasoned as she circled about Ryoma, looking very much like a predator waiting to devour its prey.

"So, the second task is to accept only ONE, just one, girl's chocolate that you like…"

"What?"

"And ask her out. Since she's the one you like." Kana finished, ignoring Ryoma interruption.

"No way will I do that." Ryoma said bluntly, crossing his arms looking defiant.

Kana look at him, full of glee. "Why? There isn't a girl you like that would give you chocolates? Or it's just that you're shy?"

Ryoma tilt his hat lower, refusing to give signs that gave him away, "No."

Kana raised her eyebrow, "No? That answer is to which of my question?"

"No! I didn't mean it!" Ryoma defended himself, cursing himself for falling into Kana's trap for the countless times.

"Ooh, I see. So IT is that there is a girl you like, and that you aren't shy to ask her out. That's good! So I don't see why you couldn't accomplish this." Kana said in triumph and before Ryoma could rebut, she shouted out, "Hey! You guys can come over now!"

Couldn't say a single thing in front of the ex-regulars, Ryoma could only glare at Kana. Kana, on the other hand, smiled innocently and ignored Eiji and Momoshiro attempts to get her to tell them what she made Ryoma promised.

"The third task…"

Momoshiro and Eiji's eyes sparkled; maybe they have not missed out everything.

"I shall tell you in due course." Kana finished delighted at Momoshiro and Eiji's crestfallen faces.

~~~After school~~~

Kana had managed to stay out of way, out of trouble. She don't thing she could come up with an excuse if a teacher happens to catch her wandering about on empty corridors when class had started. In fact, she hid up on the roof, the very same place where Ryoma always like to hang about other than the tennis court and his classrooms.

During break time, Ryoma had came up and spotted Kana, ignored her and settle on the opposite spot, keeping a good distance from her.

It suited Kana just fine; she curled over her small area, thankful for the scarf that her mother insists she should put it on. There is a small shelter over her head, so it block out most cold winds and keep the most of the snow away.

"Why won't you just go home?" Ryoma piped up unexpectedly. Kana had taken to the fact that he had fallen asleep when he laid there, unmoving, his right arm covering his eyes.

"Cause home is too far away. I won't be here for long either. I should be able to head home after tomorrow." Kana said, looking up into the blue sky, wishing that she was home in America soaking in a warm bath. She certainly had taken for granted all the riches surrounding her since she was young.

Ryoma fell silent this time, not speaking after Kana's answer.

The bell ringed signaling the end of the break, Ryoma stood up, preparing to leave for his next class. He looked back over at Kana and said, "Bye."

Kana smiled and said, "Don't forget the second promise! Oh yea, this morning Sakuno went into some trouble with a high school student. Make sure to walk her home in case he's waiting outside for her. Help me teach him a lesson from me."

Ryoma waved a hand indicating that he understood.

'Good.' Kana thought, closing her eyes thinking that she could catch some sleep before heading to the temple.

~~~In the girl's courts~~~

Echizen Ryoma had dismissed the members earlier today and took Kana's advice on walking Sakuno home. He now trots down the familiar path that will lead to the girl's courts where Sakuno will be waiting for him. The tennis courts had come into view as he edged nearer with every step.

Meanwhile, Sakuno had started to pack up in the girl's tennis room. She was blaming herself internally for forgetting that Ryoma mentioned that he'll be coming over to pick her up early and walk her home. She had cancel the practice today knowing full well that tomorrow is Valentine and the girls needed to get home to prepare chocolates and stuff. However, she had stayed back looking through books in the library on tips of what chocolate she should made this time.

Ryoma edged nearer towards the unknowingly Sakuno, his footsteps completely silent as he step lightly, much like a cat. His heart couldn't help but pound as he came nearer and nearer, something that never happen.

Ever since Kana had mentioned the second promise, the girl that popped up almost immediately in his mind was Sakuno. He had never thought much about it. He supposed that maybe he spent most of his time with this only girl, but changed his mind after Kana last few sentences.

It was almost she knew what he was thinking; mentioning the second promise then Sakuno right after. But she certainly sparked something in his chest, for the first time he was aware that he did care a lot about Sakuno.

So, up until just a few hours ago, finally aware of his feeling for the brunette girl, his heart pound nervously afraid that somehow Sakuno would be able to read his thoughts. As a result, Ryoma lose concentration and sounded out a footstep.

Sakuno gasped and turn about, surprised by the sudden sound. She spotted Ryoma smiling apologetically towards her, and pouted, "Mou, Ryoma-kun. Stop scaring me like that."

"I didn't mean it," Ryoma said, bending down and help Sakuno to pack up. Instead, Sakuno pushed him aside lightly, saying flustered-ly, "I can manage it. Why don't you sit here and wait for me?" Sakuno gestured towards the bench beside them.

Ryoma raised his eyebrows, wondering why he was rejected for help. 'Well, it doesn't matter now.' He was glad that after the short encounter with Sakuno was just as normal as any last time, and hope that this could last forever.

Sakuno hurriedly pushed the chocolates recipe books into her bag, she sighed internally. 'Ryoma-kun nearly saw it!' It has been a tradition that boys should never see the preparation for Valentine. After 5 minutes, Sakuno finally managed to pack up all her stuff and carried her heavy tennis bag. She stumbled slightly under its weight, instantly regretting borrowing so many books.

Ryoma reached and took her bag. "What did you put inside?" he asked, as they made their way out of school. Sakuno grimaced, feeling rather apologetic to Ryoma having to carry her bag.

"That much?"

"Um…" Sakuno was at a loss of words to explain.

"Hn, nevermind," Ryoma said, noticing Sakuno discomfort.

They walked on in silence, just like the many times before. It was only until outside the gates then Sakuno remembered.

"Ne, Ryoma-kun. Why you suddenly decided to walk me home today? Did Obasan ask you to do it?" Sakuno asked, wondering if her grandmother had been overly worried about her falling sick.

Ryoma shook his head, "Kana said that some idiot high schooler is making trouble for you."

"Oh, that was my fault actually…"

"Hn," was Ryoma's one word reply.

True enough, after another 5 minutes of walk they bumped into the high school student. Only this time, he wasn't alone. 5 high schoolers were waiting exactly where the incident had happened. Sakuno cowered behind Ryoma's taller form, saying, "Oh dear, Kana DID did it!"

Ryoma tilt his head slightly back, asking, "What did she do?" After all, Kana did said to teach him a lesson; only that, he decided to teach ALL of them a lesson.

Sakuno whispered, "She punched that guy there, the one with orangey brown hair."

"Why?"

Sakuno was saved for answering the question, for the orangey brown hair spoke up, "Hey! Listen carefully, you dirtied my shoe and I demand 30,000 yen for washing!"

"But, I don't have that much money…" Sakuno protested softly.

"Chey, who are you guys?" Ryoma said, disliking the group instantly. He wasn't even looking at them, his hat tilted low so that he could only see the feet.

The tallest of the group stepped forward and said cockily, "Who are you? Her boyfriend? If you know better, better run off before we bash you up for that kind of attitude!"

Ryoma looked up this time, and glared at him. The orangey brown hair guy took one step behind, remembering the glare he received from the girl earlier this morning. "He's with the one who hit me!"

Ryoma smirked, thinking privately that Kana did a good job and she said well, they DID need to be taught a lesson. He testily took a step forward but Sakuno stopped him.

"Ryoma-kun! Don't!" she pleaded.

"Ry-Ryo-Ryoma? It couldn't be…" one of the high schoolers said.

Another finished, "It couldn't be! THAT Echizen Ryoma from Seigaku?"

Ryoma smirked and said, "Eh? You know me?"

"Let's get out of here!" The tallest guy said. And the group of high schoolers immediately turns and ran in the opposite direction.

Ryoma dropped Sakuno's bag lightly down to the pavement and took out his racket. With a quick serve, it hit the leader (the tallest one) of the group and he fell flat down.

Ryoma called out, "Eh, I have a few words to say. Don't go so fast."

Knowing that there isn't another way, the leader picked himself up, his nose trickled a bit of blood from the collision to the pavement.

"30,000 yen for dirtying her bag," Ryoma said, pointing to Sakuno's bag on the ground.

"Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno scolded lightly.

"Or leave her alone. Forever." Ryoma continued.

The leader nodded feverishly.

"One more thing, don't ever let me or she sees you guys again. Or else…" Ryoma let the sentence left in midair.

"I understand!" the leader said politely, bowing low before running off when Ryoma 'dismissed' him.

"Ryoma-kun! That was a bit too unnecessary!" Sakuno said once the 'leader' was out of earshot.

They continued walking home.

"It was. If not, I would have to walk you home every day." Ryoma said without thinking much.

Sakuno blush a deep shade of pink. "Sorry, Ryoma-kun. Having to trouble you for this." She said softly.

Ryoma look back at her, his heart starting to pound again, "Betsuni."

They had reached Sakuno's home.

Ryoma reluctantly handed over her bag, wishing that the walk could last a little longer. Sakuno bowed low and muttered her thanks for the billionth time for the day.

Ryoma blurted out, "You want me to fetch you to school tomorrow? The guys could be still out there."

Sakuno smiled sweetly and answered, "That's nice of you, Ryoma. But I don't think they will."

Ryoma nodded, thinking logically, "That's true."

He lingered a little longer, his heart still pounding. Meanwhile, Sakuno looked questioningly at Ryoma wondering if he still had something to say.

Along the trip, Ryoma was wondering if he should just ask Sakuno out today rather than tomorrow. Still wavering, Ryoma still didn't know what he should do. How did Kana make it sounded so simple?

"Sakuno, …" Ryoma started testily.

This must be the first time Ryoma couldn't say straight out what he really mean.

"Ryoma?" Ryuzaki sensei voiced floated in, "What are you doing here?"

Ryoma was saved by Sakuno, "Ryoma-kun just walks me home."

"Oh really?" Ryuzaki sensei said, with a mischievous smile just for Sakuno to see.

"Mou, obachan!"

"She went into some trouble with some high school students earlier. I went to 'see' them." Ryoma said, saving Sakuno from over-blushing.

"Ja," Ryoma walked off waving, "See you tomorrow, Ryuzaki-s."

Ryuzaki-sensei shook her head, "Still the same cocky Echizen as ever."

Ryoma now walk alone.

Most of him was glad for the interruption. He doesn't feel as ready as he thought. Although, there is a tiny bit of him wishing that Ryuzaki sensei could have came just a little bit later. Ryoma wondered what will have happen if Ryuzaki sensei has not come along. Would he…

His thought was interrupted by someone speaking up beside him.

"Regret not telling Sakuno earlier?" Kana said, walking beside Ryoma-kun.

Ryoma was startle by her sudden appearance. "Since when…"

Kana cut short his sentence, knowing full well what Ryoma would ask. "I was following you and her all the way. But you were too busy thinking something else that you didn't know who else were stalking you."

"Were?" Ryoma noticed the used of plural.

"The regulars of course! To be more specific, most of them at least. But they went off to better teach those high school students to mess with their 'ochibi's love one'." Kana said.

"What?" Ryoma exclaimed at the last three words.

"Not my fault!" Kana said, raising her hands in surrender position," I quoted directly from Momoshiro-sempai. There they come now!" Kana pointed the faraway figures, "See you later outside your house!" She patted Ryoma's shoulders and sprint off in another direction, taking another longer route.

After enduring a 30 minute hassle with the ex-regulars, Ryoma finally managed to get some peace time. He now stood outside his house expecting Kana to pop out any minute, but…

The crashed sound of a broken cup could be heard outside the Echizen household. Ryoma ignored it when his father voice is heard almost immediately after it. 'Must be the idiot Oyaji broken it. Where is Kana?' Ryoma thought irritably, hating standing so long in the cold.

"AH! Ryoma finally made me proud!" Nanjiroh's loud voice could be heard as Ryoma pictured his father closing his watering eyes hugging his ever precious magazines. "He finally got himself a girlfriend! And such a pretty one!"

'WHAT THE?'

Totally forgotten the need to wait for Kana, he pushed open the Japanese sliding door and rushed into the living room. Kana is sitting by the _kotasu_, wearing what seems to be his cousin, Nanako clothes.

"Why…"

"Nya, Seishounen! You shouldn't leave your girlfriend out in the cold for so long! I knew I should have started teaching you earlier about being a gentleman…"

Ryoma looked questionly over at Kana who just shrugged. Great, another 30 minute hassle.

Soaking in the bath was Ryoma ever favorite pastime. And today, he needed it badly more than any day. With the ex-regulars visit was enough to earn him a pounding headache. But with Kana's sudden appearance and the promises he owed her, Ryoma wondered if he should take horoscope seriously from now on. Maybe he could take some advice to avoid trouble. And finally to top it off, his stupid old dad making a fuss out of nothing. After today's incident, Ryoma decided not to tell his family about asking Sakuno out.

During dinner, Kana did most of the talking and explanation about her presence. Ryoma noted how easily she could lie, and almost believe the story she cook up himself.

"I am a temporary transfer student from America, but I am actually Japanese. I just came back to Japan two nights ago. I lived with a different classmate every night, and this time it was Ryoma-kun turn."

"You look a bit too young for a third year student; you look more like a freshman." Nanjiroh noted.

"Ah, that's because I am the only freshman student with a whole group of seniors. To avoid too much confusion, the school just dumped us into the same class. Kind of stupid actually." Kana lied easily, without even pausing in deep thought.

After dinner, Ryoma went back to his room while his mother prepares some necessities for Kana. After deciding that she could camp out in Nanako's room for the night, Kana went to Ryoma's room for some one-to-one talk.

"Knock Knock" Kana said, announcing her presence at the open door to Ryoma's room.

Ryoma is at his study table, his mathbook open, his pen twirling about his left hand but haven't written a single thing on his book. "What you want?" he asked, not too politely either.

Kana stepped in and flopped herself invitingly onto his bed. "Hey!" Ryoma protested.

Kana ignored his protest and said, "Why her?"

"Who?" Ryoma said, too fast. His heartpace quicken at the mention of Sakuno.

Kana flipped over so she faced Ryoma directly, "Oh, come on. You should know better than to deny in front of me. So, come on. Tell me why you like her." Kana coaxed eager to hear some truth from her father.

Ryoma considered her statement. 'Well, she doesn't seem to have a bigmouth like Momoshiro-sempai or Eiji-sempai.'

"How about I change the question," Kana said, noticing Ryoma's unwillingness. 'That question might a little too difficult for Dad to answer.' "Why is Sakuno the first girl you thought of for my second task?"

Ryoma stared at her, "How did you know that Sakuno is the first girl I thought of?"

Kana rolled her eyes, "Your head turn automatically to face the group out far waiting for us", where there is only a girl standing there."

Ryoma scoffed, getting annoyed more and more with Kana as seconds pass by.

"Well, if you don't want to say it…" Kana said, her voice turning serious, "Have you planned where to go during the date out? Or have you been too concern over how to ask Sakuno out without the knowledge of the ex-regulars, your dad, and possibly me?"

"Hn," Ryoma replied, but knowing Kana had a point. He had been too caught up of asking Sakuno out privately to avoid as much things as possible. For example, the regulars, his dad, his fan girls and most of all the big mouth girl call, call, what's her name again? Osaka?

He continued to sit there, the pen still twirling about his fingers. He'll get in trouble for not finishing his homework with Ryuzaki sensei, but he got better things on his mind then to worry about the endless nagging from her. She might suspend his tennis activities for some time, but for now, Ryoma didn't really care much.

With Kana giggling behind him, Ryoma felt sure she had tons of ideas. But pride prevented him to turn about and ask her for help. Kana picked off the pen from his fingers and took his workbook. As Ryoma spent five minutes racking his brain over possible dating places, Kana had scribbled workings over his mathbook.

'The public tennis court? No. How about the bowling centre? The billiard place? Why all these places do seems a bit weird? Where do couples usually go for date? ARGH!' Ryoma thought.

Kana slammed the book onto the study table, startling Ryoma. "Amusement parks, movies, walking about in parks or gardens these are places that couples go genius."

Ryoma sighed, he got to get used to Kana's ability to read his mind. He looked at back at the mathbook and found his work finished. He turned and spotted Kana by the doorway, going to leave. "I used my left hand, so Ryuzaki sensei wouldn't know. After all you are asking HER granddaughter out, you got to get into her good books first. With unfinished homework, I don't think it goes under getting into Ryuzaki's sensei good books." Kana explained, leaving Ryoma alone.

Ryoma's eyes followed Kana's retreating back, wondering what is going on in her brain. He shrugged at look back at the solutions. It certainly looks like his untidy scribbles. And at the bottom of the page, Kana had stuck two tickets within it. Two tickets to the movies.

Written at the bottom left corner of the math book, Kana's own neat hand writing stood out of the entire page of math solution scribbles.

'Momoshiro-sempai bought these extra tickets when his girlfriend, Ann, bought another pair of amusement park tickets on the same day. Deciding that they will head out for the amusement park for Valentine, he gave it to me before chasing after those high schoolers bunch saying that you could find some use in it. Well, did you now?'

Ryoma stared at the tickets in his hand. 'Well, better than to go for tennis practices…'

* * *

Author notes:

This chapter turn out 2000 plus more words than I expected. It became so long that I was too lazy to type out the fight between Nanjiroh and Ryoma.

I used Kana's flashback in this chapter. I was thinking should I come up with another story regarding her tennis life. Um, should be quite interesting. What do you think?

I received one review from someone that made me re-check my entire story, especially Ryoma-kun part. I didn't realized I made him talk so little. Well, he didn't have a lot to say anyway. In this chapter, I took a daring chance to assumed Ryoma's inner thoughts.

Well, that's all! Reviews please. Thank you so much! :D


	7. Chapter 7: Valentine Mayhem

Disclaimer: No, no, no, no, no. I don't own nothing except those that u don't see from the manga and anime.

Author notes: Jeez, it's becoming a bad habit. To start on an entire new chapter before finishing the one before…

* * *

Chapter 7: Valentine Mayhem

Ryoma tossed and turn in his own single bed.

The sleeping prince couldn't sleep.

The luminous minute hand of the clock strike 12, indicating it's already one in the morning. Ryoma stared at the clock face, not really looking at it.

Thinking…

Worrying…

Nervous-ing…

Ryoma grunted in annoyance for not being able to fall asleep. He turned roughly in his bed, earning a reproachful "meow" from Karupin. Reaching over to his beloved cat, Ryoma rubbed the back of its head, comforting it.

'If Kana never push me to do this, I guess I won't take any step forward.' "Is it supposed to be good or bad?" Ryoma ask, just loud enough for Karupin to hear. Then he chuckled at his own silliness for staring at the feline expecting it to give him advice.

He had never been nervous enough to lose sleep. Not even the night before the national's tournament. But now, it seems that Ryoma had reached a point in life that he finally grew up, romantically of course

'Well, I guess I owed Kana thanks for her ideas, help and her darn promise.' Ryoma thought. Unknowingly, he picked up a tennis ball beside the alarm clock. The moonlight shone into the room showing the words scribbled on it: Number One in the National.

"I guess I could throw away the 'number one in national' title to be the number one in your heart." Ryoma whispered softly, with Karupin meowing away, as though in agreement.

* * *

The sound of the keyboard seems to continue on continuously since 10pm. And finally Inui stop keying in the data he gathered from the short match. Even though he had been at it for the past 3 hours, the data he came up about Kana was not even a page long. It barely filled up three quarters of it but Inui felt like he had keyed in at least more than 10,000 words about her. Except that he had erased it and keyed some words into it, but shook his head at the strange data he wrote and erased it once again. It had gone on like this for the past 3 hours.

Irritated, he took of his glasses and massaged his tired eyes. This must be the first time he couldn't come up with a proper data on his target. He doesn't know where she comes from, her real tennis background, her personal background, her surname or even her class in Seigaku. All he gathered from the afternoon was her attitude relation to Ryoma's. Even she had copied his moves; he paid little attention to it. Ryoma's famous moves are recorded in almost every sports magazine describing the wonders of it. Inui deduced that Kana must have learned it by watching Ryoma displayed his moves on television.

Deciding to take a rest first, he lay back on his bed, his glasses by the computer side. He relaxed a little, and closed his eyes and drifted off sleeping before he could stop himself…

* * *

Many hours later….

The clock chimed softly indicating its 6 o clock in the morning. Wife of Echizen Nanjiroh, Rinko, woke up and left her snoring husband sleeping soundly. Silently she stepped out of their room and begins her usual morning routine. After washing up, she made her way down to the kitchen while tying on her apron. However, unlike what so happen for the past 15 years, she stop short at the entrance to the kitchen.

"Ryoma-kun?" Rinko said, surprised.

"Okasan? Ohayo," greeted the prince.

"Are you all right?" Rinko asked worriedly, moving to Ryoma and put her delicate hand over her son's forehead.

Ryoma jerked off. "Mum! I'm all right."

"But…" Rinko continued curiously, wondering what had caused the change of the prince's sleeping pattern.

"Oh, he's all right," Kana said, appearing by the doorway, her hair still pink, "he's just nervous, that's all."

"Nervous? Is there an important paper coming up today?" Rinko asked, while she started to prepare breakfast.

Kana went along and helped Rinko out. "No, it's just…" Kana stopped short when she spotted Ryoma glaring at her.

"Today's valentine, remember?" She continued; giving vague hints to Rinko what might happen today as she poured out some warm milk for Karupin. Karupin meowed gratefully as it moved forward allowing Kana to pat her.

Rinko looked around, choosing not to say much, knowing very well just how much her son hated valentine. However, this year attitude wasn't quite the same as last few years. Nanjiroh practically had to dragged Ryoma out of his bed and blackmail him to school. Instead, Rinko got distracted how Kana bonded that easily with Karupin.

"That's strange; I've never seen Karupin able to accept a total stranger that quickly. It usually takes three days before allowing himself to be comfortable with their presence." Rinko remarked.

Kana smiled, "I have plenty of cats myself, been raising them since I was young. It's natural for me to deal with cats easier than to deal with people."

Ryoma piped up, "Or maybe, he just like girls better," remembering how Karupin accepted Sakuno just as fast. He pulled out the bottle of green liquid from his bag, finally recalling Inui's instruction, and hand it over to Kana. "There. Inui-sempai said that this will help to remove the pink stains within one wash. You won't have to bear with it for a week anymore."

Kana accepted the bottle, she shrugged. "Well, I'll used it when the time is ripe," Kana decided.

"Your hair wasn't pink originally?" Ryoma asked, curious.

Kana nodded silently as Nanjiroh entered the kitchen.

After the breakfast and listening to Nanjiroh's endless remembrance of his own experience on Valentine and his endless tips about dealing with girls, Ryoma was glad to get out of the house.

"Remember to act cool when a girl hands you chocolates!" Najiroh exclaimed his last tip while showing them out. Ryoma rolled his eyes and slammed the front door in his dad's face.

Kana's pink eyebrows raised and ask, "Does he do that ALL the time?" She been questioned and hinted a lot about Ryoma being single when she stayed there overnight. Not to mention he first thought that Ryoma was finally "growing up to be a man".

Ryoma gave a "Hn," as an answer and asked, "Why didn't you washed the pink stuff off?"

Kana gave a shrug and said, "Celebration for valentine? Have you bought anything for Sakuno?"

Ryoma stopped and stared at her, "Huh?"

Kana stopped too, her face portraying the same bewildered face of Ryoma's except that it was because of her father lack of knowledge in romance department. (Oh poor Kana, your father has only started learning; you got to have some patience…)

"Don't you need to give her some present for the first date? Geez, you are SO dense!" Kana said, and turned away from Ryoma, her long hair nearly whipping his face.

They continued to walk in silence. Kana shivered, she was wearing Nanako's old clothes, not Seigaku's uniform. But in the winter, where a coat is always worn over normal clothes, no one going to know that the green skirt is not part of Seishun Garden uniform.

Kana hoped that she will return back to home soon. She doesn't want to camp out every night over at her father's place and hid up on the roof at school, or to even wait until her time comes and return back to her own bed only after 19 years later.

They went pass a convenience shop, a young age boy grumbled as he unwillingly set up the necessities to start business on such a cold winter morning. Ryoma suddenly stopped and pulled Kana so that she jerked back, standing by the open door to the shop.

"What?" Kana said, annoyed.

Ryoma gestured to the just open shop, "You did say buy present?" Ignoring Kana disbelievingly and distrust in this shop, he stepped in.

The warming device had only just started, so the air is still chilly. Kana stood beside a thinking Ryoma tip toed and whispered into his ear, "I highly doubt you can find a present in here! This place doesn't look like they sell girls jewels or accessories."

"No need for that," Ryoma said, smiling when he spotted a perfect present. He took it and brought it over to the young boy, "How much?"

"120 yen," the boy said, smiling to get customers this early.

Ryoma gave him some coins and walked out, with an even bewildered Kana behind.

"I thought you don't like it." Kana said, staring at the item he purchased not long ago.

Ryoma shook his head, "Nope, I just like teasing her about it, but I sort of like it, looks pretty on her." He put the object back into his bag, safely zipped in a corner of his bag.

As they neared the school building, Kana spotted the familiar pink outfit of Sakuno's. She nudged Ryoma at the side, gestured towards the pink figure and said, "Here's your chance!"

Ryoma looked in the direction Kana pointed. "Sure enough, the petite figure truly does belong to Sakuno…"

'Here goes nothing.'

He silently glanced back at Kana, who grinned and left, doing exactly what Ryoma had hoped.

Meanwhile…

"Oh no, no, no!" Sakuno whined. She couldn't believe that she left home late for the second consecutive time. Although rather glad that she hadn't woken up to find Kana by her side, Sakuno had woken up too late because staying up late last night.

She hoped that all the hard she put into making those chocolates could pay off…

She hurried a little along despite the cold. Sakuno wonder how she could pass the chocolates to Ryoma-kun.

Ryoma walked up to Sakuno. His long legs reached her easily.

"Hey!" He managed.

"Hi, Ryoma-kun! Good morning!" Sakuno said, a little too cheerfully. She had been too nervous about the handling of chocolates to her crush then to realize that the unsocial able Ryoma-kun had started a conversation.

They fell in step, walking to the school together just like the many times before, each absorbed in their own thoughts of worry

Sakuno: 'Should I hand it to him now? What if he refuses? Oh my! What am I to do?'

Ryoma: 'Should I hand her the tickets now? Or when she hand me the chocolate first? What if she didn't make any chocolates for me? Then, that's kind of embarrassing… Oh, whatever!'

Decided to get it over and done with, Ryoma opened his mouth and started, "Er…"

But at the very same time, Sakuno too, said, "Ry-Ryoma-kun…"

Ryoma was taken back a little; he hadn't heard Sakuno stuttering nervously for a long time. He said, "Go ahead. Don't mind me."

Stopping by a crossroad pavement, Sakuno fished out the carefully wrapped chocolate box she made last night; a silver box with a neatly tied blue bow. She handed it out towards Ryoma-kun, hoping her hand wouldn't tremble too much. She tries hard to make her face muscles work, smiling stiffly, Sakuno said, "Happy Valentine Day, Ryoma-kun."

Internally, she gave herself a high-five. She managed to say it out without stuttering. But at the same time, another part of her was worried that Ryoma was to reject the chocolates. It was a brief second, but Sakuno was sure she saw it. Echizen Ryoma smiled. Or at least, the corners to his mouth seemed to tug up a little. A flare of hope burned in her heart.

Ryoma took the chocolates she made, his hand brushing against Sakuno's smaller ones. Startled, Sakuno withdrew her hands as though burned and blushed a deep shade of red. 'He accepted it!' was all Sakuno think.

"Thank you," Ryoma said simply. "Sakuno…" Ryoma started his turn, his free hand reached for the movie tickets in his pocket; he was just about to pull it out when…

"SAKUNO-CHAN!" An impossibly loud voice shouted down the pavement.

Instinct made Ryoma push the chocolate box Sakuno gave into his other pocket. And not a moment too soon either, for…

"RYOMA-KUN! YOU ARE HERE TOO!" Osaka Tomoka said in her loud voice, excited.

Ryoma winced, privately wondering how Sakuno ever protects her hearing when she hangs out with this girl most of her time.

Tomoka had taken out her box of chocolates which seems to come from a big paper bag she carried along. Ryoma spotted some boxes within the paper bag have familiar tennis players names printed on it, all written in the same handwriting.

"THERE! THIS IS YOURS, RYOMA-SAMA!" Tomoka said, pushing the box into Ryoma, forcing him to accept it.

Ryoma raised his eyebrow silently, and said defiantly, an air of childishness, "Yada (_No way_)!"

With that, he started walking once more, however this time, with Sakuno lagging behind with a slightly crestfallen Tomoka.

* * *

The morning went past in a flash.

And Ryoma still hasn't plucked up his courage to ask Sakuno out. The chocolate box still in his pocket, not opened, not tasted. And he regretted not been able to tell Sakuno how he really felt. Maybe if he put his pride aside this morning, he would not have to sit here feeling jumpy, out of sorts, nervous, regretful and…

"Ryoma-kun!" Ryuzaki sensei's sharp voice brought him back to reality. "Did out dear tennis captain managed to finish his work this time? Or has he prepared himself to go through 3 horrendous days without touching anything that relates to tennis?" Ryoma scowled as the class chuckled at Ryuzaki's sensei comment.

"Now if you did do your work, you can show the solutions to your class." Ryuzaki sensei said, handing him a piece of chalk.

Grateful that Kana had done his work for him last night; Ryoma had no problem scratching the solutions on the board. While he wrote, he was impressed how easily Kana could handle a third year student math problem.

Speaking of her, where she is?

Kana had gone back to the rooftop, scowling as she recalled the morning's events.

'Stupid _oyaji_, he could have just stopped acting all cool and proud and ask Sakuno out at the moment. It was perfect! PERFECT! But, he ruined it. Oh well, maybe Osaka-san ruined it.'

* * *

It is break time, and a long queue of girls, excited girls, stood outside class 3-1, waiting for 'Ryoma-sama' to walk out. He sighed, looking at the many faces pressing eagerly at the windows waiting for the teacher to say the magic words: Class Ends!

The teacher is a young one. He nervously shuffled the papers in front of him saying in a squeaky soft voice the homework for the day. The guys groaned at the prospect of doing homework on valentine's days while the girls outside sniggered at their reaction.

"Who were they to complain when they have no girlfriends or admirers to accompany?" a shrill high pitched girl's voice floated in the classroom.

Ryoma rolled his eyes and slumped over his desk. How is he ever to get out unharmed? He stared moodily at the sea of girls on his right. Maybe he could risk jumping off the windows on his left. It faces the tennis courts and he's 3 floors off the ground. If he is to be lucky, he will only end up with a sore butt. But if he wasn't so lucky, he might end up with a twisted ankle or worse, a sprained wrist.

A flicker of pink caught Ryoma's attention. There aren't a lot of pink heads in the school especially when the pink headed seems to be much shorter in a full group of seniors.

'Oh goody, saved!' was Ryoma's first thought.

"Okay um… Class ends," the teacher finally announced as quickly got out of the classroom before the wave of girls crashed in.

Ryoma found himself thinking desperately as the scene unfolded in slow motion before his eyes. Girls running towards him, smiles and grins plastered on their face.

'Hurry up Kana!' Ryoma could scream, if not of his pride.

"HEY! RYOMA!" a sharp annoyed voice rang clearly in the noise of the huge crowd.

And yet, the voice contained some authoritative means, for all the girls stopped their actions and look expectantly towards the source of the voice.

The crowd automatically spread so that Ryoma could see a short pink haired girl. Those around her automatically step away from her so that she stood out against the sea of green uniforms.

Kana stood just outside the door to the classroom, her hands on her hips, her shirt half tucked in and her green skirt faded and slightly frayed at the ends. Wearing Ryoma's old tennis shoes and Sakuno scarf tied firmly about her waist, she looked much like someone not to cross with. Furthermore with her head cocked slightly to one side and a scowl wore right on her pretty face.

'She clearly got style.' Ryoma thought, his insides relived that he wasn't crushed under the many crazy girls. He calmly stood up and walked towards her, but stopped for two girls are blocking the doorway. Ryoma wouldn't be able to get out unless he squeezed pass them.

Kana saw Ryoma walking towards her. Although his facial expression didn't change, maintaining the calm and collected tennis prince outer character, heartthrob of almost all the girls in Seishun academy and so on, his insides must be relieved and jumping for joy. She smirked a little towards him and then crossed her arms looking at the pair of girls blocking his way.

Glaring coldly towards them, Kana issued a cold frosty voice yet crisp voice, "Stop standing there like a couple of bricks, never seen me before?"

Through enough, the pair of girls were debating where in the world did this offending daring girl pop out from. They blushed a deep crimson of red (so unlike Sakuno's, for theirs was out of anger) but stood aside silently, each fuming inside.

Ryoma nodded towards Kana, an acknowledgment; and they left together, leaving the stunned fan girls in the wake.

"It'll be easier if you just announced officially that Sakuno's your girlfriend," Kana said at once when they are out of earshots from the group of girls.

Ryoma eyebrow twitched as he unintentionally let out what had been going through his mind since yesterday, "Can you stop saying what's going through my mind every time?"

He didn't sound angry, in fact he sounded half impressed and half annoyed.

Kana noticed it and smirked, "Oh, don't you ever want to know?" she said, purposely teasing him.

A stomach rumbling interrupted the short conversation.

Ryoma looked at the shorter figure. "Hungry?"

"You would too if you spent the last few hours burning food at a faster rate to keep warm on the rooftop." Kana said.

Ryoma was about to ask her why she kept staying at the rooftop when a girl came running up towards them.

It was one of the girls who were blocking the doorway. "Ryoma-sama! Try my homemade chocolate?" she said flirty-ly, handing out a perfectly wrapped pink box.

'Good timing' Kana said as the same thought went pass Ryoma's head. Kana took the box off, as Ryoma said, "These should keep you full."

Kana smirked towards the astonished girl, "Thanks for your chocolates!" she said.

"RYOMA-SAMA! MY NAME IS ELIZABETH!" she shouted as Kana and he walked off.

And that's how things gone as they walked down the corridor to the cafeteria. Girls handing chocolates to Ryoma ended up in Kana's possession. Ryoma barely look properly at those girls but took the box and threw it to Kana who is now trying to juggle the many number of boxes she's holding.

"ENOUGH!" Kana shouted out when Ryoma is about to reached for the 25th box of chocolates. He looked back in surprised to see Kana trying to keep the 24 boxes from falling off her grasps. "I wouldn't be able to finish the choco-LATES!" Kana tried and failed to keep the boxes from falling.

But, someone had intervened.

Or more like someone-S.

Receiving a hard slap on her back and a tight hug that could squeeze the breathe out of her, Kana grunted, "Why are you guys here today again?"

"Why ARE you here? We are ex-students, and you?" Momoshiro said, opening the green box of chocolates that he caught. Without asking permission, he popped one chocolate into his mouth, "UM, these are GOOD!" He nodded in approval.

"Me? I am ABOUT to be student…" Kana said not finishing her sentence, and snatched the box back from Momoshiro.

"Hey!" Momo protested.

"Ne, ne, Kana ochibi-chan, why are you receiving chocolates?" Eiji asked curiously, staring at the many boxes she holds; using the same nickname that he gave Ryoma so many years ago.

"I gave them to her," Ryoma said, "she said she's hungry."

"Translation: So I took chocolates off from the never ending list of fan girls and gave it to this poor starving girl here." Kana said, picking the chocolate Momoshiro opened and slapped away his reaching hand.

"So, technically I didn't accept it since I didn't ate them right?" Ryoma said, asking Kana in particular.

The regulars watched on curiously when Kana nodded in agreement.

The father and daughter eyes met, and instantly they understood each other. AGAIN.

Kana let the many boxes fall off from her grasps again, exclaiming an "Oh no!" to draw attention to herself. The regulars automatically bend down and help her picked the many boxes. Kana thanked her much younger tennis coaches and suggested to eat. No one noticed that Ryoma had snuck off.

The regulars followed Kana without suspecting a thing, only interrupted by girls handing over their chocolates.

"Ah, sempai-tachi!" a familiar loud voice said. Horio, Katsuo and Kachiro walked towards them. "Where are you going?"

"School cafeteria. I could smell the blueberry muffins from here, they are definitely much better than the ones back in the high school." Momoshiro answered, his habit of eating kicked in.

"Ah! You are the one…" Kachiro spotted Kana and pointed towards her, then realizing that it was rude, stop his sentence halfway and blushed in embarrassment.

Horio didn't seem to notice it, with a shout that attract attention from everyone in the corridor, he said, "AH! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO BEAT ECHIZEN YESTERDAY!"

Kana eyes narrowed when Horio shouted, "Technically, he lost. That's all." With that, she continued the journey to the cafeteria leading the group of regulars, regardless are they ex or not.

Katsuo commented, "Eh. Kana-san is certainly different. She seems to shine an aura, making friends with sempai-tachi in only a day. Look! Eiji sempai seems to like her as much as Ryoma-kun, maybe even better!" His tone impressed.

Katsuo nodded as Kachiro pointed out those details.

Unknown to them, Inui overheard it. His glass glinted as he took in information he gathered about Kana from the pair.

Thinking to himself, he realize that the pair are right, they hardly had any comments or questions regarding to Kana saying and doing, following behind her much like she's the leader. Even Tezuka didn't seem to guard against her much.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ryoma walked quickly down the corridor ignoring girls that are trying to stop him. At first, he walked quickly, then jogs and now sprints. Finally, he reached Sakuno class and saw her exiting the science lab. He smiled when she spotted him and started towards her but…

"Ryoma-sama! My chocolates! Try them!" one unfamiliar girl came up and tries to feed a piece of chocolate into his mouth. As Ryoma tried to fend her off, more and more girls came up and 'launched' themselves on him. Sakuno stared, half amused, half worried for Ryoma.

"Ryoma-sama!" the girl earlier had returned. Elizabeth.

Ryoma's eyes narrowed, hating the girl for following him. "You accepted my chocolates, so when is our first date?" Elizabeth said loudly, purposely letting her voice carried down the corridor of girls.

But the effect was completely opposite to what she had expected. Instead of a stunned silent of admiration for her, she received an angry retort from a dozen other girls.

"NO! Ryoma-sama accepted mine!"

"Mine first! He took mine first!"

"IDIOTS! IT'S MINE FIRST!"

Elizabeth pushed hard at the one who shouted and everything instantly turned into a girls fight. Ryoma escaped the crowd and pulled the stunned Sakuno by her hand and ran towards the direction of the cafeteria.

* * *

~~~Going back to Kana~~~

Kana and the regulars entered the cafeteria with squeals and shouts ringing in almost every direction. Kana winced under the sharp voice and ducked in cover behind Tezuka as girls came rushing in every direction. She don't feel like getting them out of this situation and anyway, Kana sweat drop as a smiling Fuji took off boxes of chocolates eagerly pressed into his hands and Momoshiro loud voice of "Here, HERE!", it didn't seems like they needed rescuing.

So, they sat in the middle of the large cafeteria, a crowd of girls surrounding them and a long queue of girls waiting to hand over their chocolates. None of the girls knew that the ex-regulars were to re-visit their old school today and hadn't prepared many chocolates. So, boxes of chocolates intended for the cocky tennis captain now ended up stacked in a mountain sized behind Kana as she pick another chocolate piece and popped it into her mouth.

"RYOMA-SAMA!"

Kana sit up immediately as the ex-regulars and her watched intently at another crowd formed near the cafeteria doors. Kana smiled, "Finally!"

With the regulars tailing eagerly after her, they joined the crowd that surrounds the two tennis captains.

* * *

~~~Going back to Ryoma-kun~~~

Ryoma and Sakuno only stopped when both of them are standing by the doors of the cafeteria. They walked in and sit by the nearest deserted bench at a corner of the cafeteria. Ryoma waited for Sakuno to get her breathe back, instantly felt sorry that he had pulled her along without considering her ability.

One girl had walked nervously up to the pair. "Ryoma-sama?" She said softly, respectfully. Startled, Ryoma looked up to see a bespectacled purple hair girl looking at him, afraid. "Would you like to have my chocolates?" she asked hopefully.

Sakuno turned away, wishing that she wasn't here to cause things awkward. She heard Ryoma said, "Sorry," and the sounds of the girl's shoes walking off.

Waiting for the sounds to draw far, Sakuno then turned and faced Ryoma back again. He was watching the retreating back of the girl, musing, "Not all fan girls are bad huh?" He said, asking Sakuno. Not much fan girls leave like that without making a fuss, a VERY loud fuss.

Sakuno didn't say anything, wondering why Ryoma didn't accept the girl's when the bunch of fan girls outside insisted that he accepted theirs.

Strangely they had been left quite alone in the cafeteria. Ryoma seized the chance and plucked up his courage.

'It's now or never.'

"Sakuno, there's something I want to say…"

Sakuno looked into the golden eyes expecting Ryoma to give her more tips on the Saturday tennis training schedule she come up with.

"Actually, I have…"

"RYOMA-SAMA!"

Ryoma inner side practically screeched in annoyance when he recognized Elizabeth's voice.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" she purposely said in a cute whiny voice and dropped herself onto Ryoma's lap.

Ryoma instantly pushed her away before Elizabeth could sit on his lap, not too gently either for she stumbled slightly. A crowd of girls surrounded the pair sitting on the bench now.

Elizabeth eyed Sakuno, as though she had been the one pushing her away. Evidently, Elizabeth thought that her appearance had changed the attitude Ryoma gave her.

Sakuno stared defiantly back. She hadn't spent a year getting bullied by fan girls with her close relationship with Ryoma. She had been stronger, although admittedly not with the older high schoolers.

"He's mine, you know? Ryuzaki. Ryoma-sama-took-MY-chocolates." Elizabeth said loudly pronouncing every word clearly as though afraid that Sakuno couldn't understand them.

Ryoma rolled his eyes and half shouted, "Get off!" when she attempted to squeezed herself between them.

"Ryoma-sama, you accepted my chocolates so you should be with me!" she whined, changing her voice to a whiny one whenever she addressed Ryoma.

Shouts went up. "No! He accepted mine first!"

"Mine first!"

No one, well expected Sakuno who blushed a deep shade of pink knowing full well whose chocolates did Ryoma really first accepted.

Ryoma finally spoke, in a ringing voice that shut the many mouths of the fan girls, "Enough! If you really want to know, I accepted Sakuno's first. And only hers."

Elizabeth dropped the whiny voice and said normally but softer this time, "But, Ryoma-sama, you took my chocolates too. And all of theirs!" she said, pointing to a crowd of 23 girls standing in shock at his outburst.

Ryoma held up a hand and Elizabeth stopped, looking wide eyed at him, so did the many other fan girls.

"Anyway, Sakuno, I had something to say." Ryoma said quietly, pulling out the long awaiting tickets. "Are you free this evening?"

Sakuno blushed hard, understanding Ryoma immediately as she smiled sweetly, unable to stop. She continued to look at the tennis prince who swallowed nervously and continued, "These are the tickets to the movies, Momoshiro-sempai gave them to me, would you come along… with me… on a da-te?"

A gasp of horror could be heard from Elizabeth but no one took noticed of her. Everyone was gazing intently at Ryoma and Sakuno, waiting for Sakuno to say "Yes."

Tears began to form at the side of Sakuno's eyes, half out of joy, and half out of pure amusement. She had never seen Ryoma looking so uncomfortable and pleading before. For a heart stopping moment, Ryoma thought that Sakuno was not happy about it, only agreeing to help him get out of the fan girls mess. But his thought went away when he saw Sakuno broke into a watery smile and nodded hard, unable to speak.

Elizabeth overcome her shock first, and spoke, interrupting the short happy moment the newly form couple had. "Well, you too accepted our chocolates, so…"

She was interrupted by a loud "Hn!"

"You are talking about these chocolates?" Kana said, standing at the end of the crowd with the smirking regulars, pointing to the numerous boxes opened and eaten at their previous table.

Ryoma eyes widened. Not expecting them to be here watching the short episode all along. He flushed deep red that can be compared with his newly acquired girlfriend when the regulars all wore a face that says: Prepare yourself for later!

"I ate them, not your precious Ryoma-kun. Oops. I meant, Sa-kun-o's precious Ryoma-kun." Kana said, purposely pronouncing every syllabus for Elizabeth to catch this time. The regulars snickered behind her as Elizabeth puffed in anger.

"Anyway, I took the chocolates off you remember? Not Ryoma." Kana said, walking slowly to the centre of the crowd closer to Elizabeth. "And the rest of you," Kana pointed, "Who really accepted your chocolates?"

The accused girls mouth pressed thin as they bowed low, avoiding attention given by the rest of them.

"And I highly doubt those chocolates are yours. They taste just like from Meiji's," Kana continued as Elizabeth flushed red in embarrassment. Kana then pointed to a girl, "Cadbury's" and the girl flushed red too.

"Lindtt."

"Time out."

"Kitkat."

"Mars bars."

One by one the girls blushed red.

Kana had grown up with her mother, Sakuno, being a professional cook specializes in Japanese cuisine and sweets. So she knew much about the taste of different chocolates and sweets her mother often use to made her own creation.

Momoshiro chose this moment to speak up, "Eh, then the ones that I said was good, was from?"

Kana said, "High quality Belgium chocolate. But the chocolate had been melted and added some hazelnuts to enhance the taste. That had been homemade."

"Oh!' Momoshiro exclaimed, delighted that the girl had put some effort in making chocolates then just to hand over purchased pieces.

Ryoma raised his eyebrow and took out Sakuno's box. He carefully removed the blue ribbon and took off the silver cover.

Sakuno watched on, her eyes carefully searched Ryoma's face as he chose a piece of chocolate and popped it into his mouth. Ryoma savored the moment, the chocolate slowly melting on his tongue…

"Bitter at first, leaving a sweet aftertaste. However not too sweet, just nice," Kana said, teasingly.

Ryoma's eyes snapped open, while Sakuno's mouth fell open. 'How does she know?'

Ryoma mouth opened, once again about to question the girl's ability to guess things correctly much too many times.

Kana held up a hand, just like Ryoma just now, "Third promise: Ask no questions and I tell no lies."

Ryoma reconsidered, then remembering the lies she told so smoothly to Oyaji last night, and thought better.

The crowd started to dispersed, each disappointed that their Ryoma-sama had been taken and the lucky girl to be the famous girls tennis captain, her grandmother, Ryuzaki-sensei the math head of department.

Sakuno asked nervously, not entirely convince that her chocolates are up to standard, "Ryoma-kun, how's the chocolates? Are they good?"

Ryoma looked back at her, "No, they are the best I ever tasted."

"OOOooo!" Eiji and Momoshiro exclaimed as Sakuno blushed (if possible) redder.

"Eh? Ochibi-chan can be romantic when he wants to huh?" Eiji exclaimed loudly, pulling Ryoma and glomped him as always, but this time, out of pure glee and happiness for the long awaited couple.

"This certainly changed my data in regards of Ryoma's romance department," Inui muttered out loud as he scribbled quickly in his notebook. "Eiji, if you don't let go Ryoma any sooner, there will be an 87% chance of choking him to death."

Eiji quickly let go the fast turning purple Ryoma-kun. Ryoma coughed, taking deep breaths of oxygen while Skauno watched on concernedly.

Momoshiro noticed this and slapped hard behind Eiji, "HAHA! Eiji-semapi you better stop doing that. Did you see how worried is Sakuno over her boy-friend?" He had learned to drag the words to emphasize his point from Kana, but stop laughing when Eiji slapped him hard this time.

"Hey! It hurts a hell lot!" Momoshiro shouted.

"Stop shouting, you porcupine head! My eardrums are going to burst because of you!" Kaidoh said, irritated.

"What? You want a fight?" Momoshiro said, holding a fist up towards Kaidoh.

"Yeah!" Kaidoh said, holding up his fist too.

But, much to Ryoma and Sakuno surprised, they turned and congratulate them for getting together finally.

But each of them shouted louder and louder attempting to drown the sound of the each other.

Kana smiled, leaving the regulars to celebrate the happy occasion. Quietly, she tugged gently at Sakuno, motioning her mother to follow her.

Sakuno was curious but followed her anyway, since she had something to tell Kana herself. Kana led Skauno back to the first table where the chocolates were still there, and pointed to a chair, gesturing Sakuno to sit.

Sakuno smiled her face still slightly pink from the earlier encounter. "Kana, thanks a lot."

"No problem. I figured that without a little push, Ryoma would never take any step forward anyway."

Sakuno is confused, "Huh?"

Kana figured out her mistake.

"Oh, I see, you are thanking me for?"

Sakuno blush a deep red and said, "For helping Ryoma-kun to get out of the mess just now."

Kana smirked, and added, "And you too."

Sakuno smiled slightly and nodded.

"Well, there is something you should know anyway. Even though I might force Ryoma to ask a girl out, he really likes you from the bottom of his heart."

"Eh?" Sakuno said, not truly grasping what Kana had said.

"It was the second promise task I assigned him."

Sakuno nodded, understanding it at last.

"But, no worries! I didn't force him to ask you out. I told him to get a move on it and ask the girl he likes out." Kana tried hard to explain, noticing the slight change in Sakuno's face.

Sakuno assured, "I understand. Ryoma-kun will never do something he won't agree on."

Kana breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good. Cause the second thing I want to tell you is that if one day you couldn't find me anywhere in this school, most likely I have return home back in America."

"Return home? America?" Sakuno asked quizzically, "Haven't you transferred in recently?"

Kana nodded, choosing not to explain too much, she waved up high, signaling the regulars to come over.

* * *

~~~30 minutes later~~~

The news of them being a couple seems to spread like fire, even Sumire Ryuzaki had made the effort of coming down from her staff room, warning Ryoma to take good care of her precious granddaughter.

And as usual, Tomo-chan made herself heard by her loud exclamation over recent turn of events. "So that's why you won't accept my chocolates this morning?" Tomo-chan loudly question poor Ryoma. The regulars looked intently at Ryoma who without the comfort of his ever present Fila cap couldn't pull it over his head and hide his reddening face.

"And don't worry, Sakuno. I as the president of Ryoma-sama fans club will protect both Ryoma-sama and you, especially from that bitch Elizabeth!" Tomo-chan continued, after hearing an exaggerated version of what had happen from Momoshiro and Eiji.

After a short celebration where the ex-regulars had their fill in teasing the young couple, they headed back to their school, well most of them.

Now, waving Sakuno and Ryoma off as they head to their class, Inui remained alone with Kana this time.

"Haven't you used the solution I concoct up for removing the pink stains?" Inui asked.

Kana shook her head, waiting for Inui to ask what he really intended.

"Well, actually what I really wanted to ask is that who are you?" Inui asked, embarrassed that this is the first time he actually took the bother to find out his 'opponents' by asking them directly.

"Kana," Kana said, hoping that will suffice.

"No, that's not what I meant."

Kana looked at him, her tone serious, "Do you think I will tell?"

Inui went back to his business like tone, "Judging by the past two days, there is a 100% chance that you will lie if you don't want to tell the truth."

Kana nodded and walked off, heading back to the roof which seems to be a second home to her, leaving Inui standing alone puzzling the events for the coming few years. And perhaps forever…

Kana now snuggled back into her own private corner on the rooftop. She took out the bottle of solutions that Inui had passed it to her father and he had passed it to her. 'Should I use it now?' She thought.

A cold wind blew, and suddenly Kana felt sleepy. Figuring that she'll think about it later, Kana snuggled deeper into Nanako's warm winter clothes, closed her eyes and slept. Her hands clasped tightly about the bottle of green solution.

* * *

Ryoma sat back in his class, thinking over what had happened. He reviewed what had happened in his head and really knows that he owed Kana plenty of big thanks. The class had left him alone, allowing Ryoma to soak in his own happiness pool. Even the teachers didn't tell him off for staring off into spaces. It seemed that the news or rumor had spread throughout the entire school. But most likely more.

Tomo-chan had managed to call Shiba-san, now being an official editor in the sports magazine, and tell her the good news. It seems obvious what will be at the first page of the next issue of "Young tennis Pros".

At the end of the class, Ryoma immediately went up to the roof, knowing full well that Kana would hang out there. He pushed open the door that leads to the rooftop, smiling, but stopped.

No one was there.

He step out tentatively, looking carefully, the rooftop is a small area; a quick scan will be enough to determine if someone is there. He stared at the place where Kana sat last time, an imprint was there. She had been here. Ryoma walked closer and put his hand over the wall where Kana would have lain against.

Still warm.

His eyes wandered off to a patch of snow that lay nearby, someone had used it to leave a message. He recognized Kana's neat handwriting, where a "Congrats" had been carved into.

Ryoma smiled once again.

* * *

~~~After school~~~

Ryoma is running.

After seeing Sakuno back home safe and sound with many 'light bulbs' in company; in other words the ever present regulars, he ran home, hoping to find Kana soon when she didn't turn up for the rest of the day.

He pushed the sliding door open and…

"SEISHOUNEN! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" Echizen Nanjiroh shouted when he finally saw Ryoma return home.

Ryoma's eyes narrowed, "Get out the way Oyaji! I am in a rush! Have you seen Kana?" He tried and failed to push Nanjiroh aside.

"Oi, Oi! Why didn't you tell me you are getting yourself a girlfriend? Anyway, it's that girl who you brought home last week told me!" Nanjiroh said, blocking access for Ryoma to enter the house. He nodded in approval as he continued, "Kana sure does knows a lot on romance. If you ever need advice on girls, you should find her you know… And, oh yeah. I don't really keen on being relative with that old lady, but her granddaughter is kind of cute…"

Ryoma stared at his father, all efforts of pushing past him abandoned.

"Ho-w di-did…" Ryoma spluttered.

"Kana, of course. She wrote a note and left it sticking on the bell that I have to knock after breakfast every day," Nanjiroh explained, smirking as he handed over a yellow sticky paper to Ryoma. Ryoma's golden eyes scanned the paper quickly, it said:

_Ne, ne Nanjiroh-jichan. Did you know something really REALLY interesting? Your son is getting himself a girlfriend today. Don't think that you finally had got him to act, because I am the one who got him to wake up. Your advices for the past years don't seem to help much. I highly doubt it would in the future._

_Your future daughter-in-law is Sakuno Ryuzaki. Yes, that granddaughter of the 'old lady'. Small world isn't it? You should really try to get along with her you know… Or you are going to suffer for the next many years to come._

_P.S. Tell Ryoma that he shouldn't thank me. For this note is the result of it._

_Lovingly,_

_E. Kana_

Ryoma crumpled the note. He should have known Kana.

He roughly pushes aside Nanjiroh and search the entire house up and down but couldn't find her. He slides open Nanako's room for one last time to check again. Nanako was there, holding up a set of clothes, what seems to be Kana had been wearing today.

Nanako spotted her cousin and asked, "Ryoma-kun? Have you seen Kana anywhere? I found this fresh and clean at her bedroll."

Ryoma was starting to get worried. Without a word, he ran out of the house back to school, all the while searching for the young pink headed girl.

* * *

Sakuno sat by her bed, in a very same situation so many times before. Clothes lay all around her as she couldn't decide on which dress she should wear on her very first date with Ryoma-kun. She blush just the thought of it.

A ding dong was heard.

'Oh no!'

Ryuzaki-sensei voice floated upstairs to Sakuno's room, "Ah, here you are Ryoma-kun. Sakuno is still on top getting ready. Get in; meanwhile, I should list you some rules."

Sakuno didn't hear Ryoma's reply but she knew that she would have to hurry up now. Grabbing orange turtle neck shirt and a white sweater imprinted with roses to keep warm, she quickly changed into those.

* * *

Meanwhile…

"And by latest, 10.30pm she must be home. And you have to see her all the way to the porch, watch with your own eyes that she got in the front door safely and in one piece…"

"Oba-chan!" Sakuno said reprovingly, "I am not a three year old."

"This is what a boyfriend should do. Look after the girl." Sumire said, now ushering the pair out of the door. "Be safe, and remember, be back latest by 10.30pm!"

Ryoma and Sakuno are now alone outside.

It's not like that they never had been walking alone before, but this time is different. They are an item now. That's what made everything changed.

A thick air of awkwardness was between them. Sakuno was rather uncomfortable by it. Ryoma, on the hand, doesn't seem to be affected by it. His expression hard to read, Sakuno was starting to worry that Ryoma had second thoughts about this date until he reached over and took her hand into his.

Sakuno looked back to Ryoma's face, this time he was smiling at her. Sakuno blushed hard.

During the movies, Ryoma was fidgeting in his seat. He tried not to fall asleep as the film rolled on showing a girl crying in a corner about lost love. Sakuno reached over and touched Ryoma's arm, she whispered, "Let's go."

Now they stood outside the movie theatre. Ryoma was glad that he was out, but was rather worried. He asked, "Sakuno, are you sure that you don't want to watch that movie?"

Sakuno smiled, "its okay Ryoma-kun. I don't mind. Besides, we were too late to choose the good movies that had already started."

True enough, they had arrived half an hour later and the receptionist couldn't let them in. Instead, she helped by offering them empty seats available for the other movie that had started not long ago. Shrugging, Ryoma didn't want to waste the tickets, so they went for the movie about second love.

So now, they walked back, the sky already dark. Snowflakes started to fall lightly once more.

Ryoma breathe in the cold air and let out a misty fog as he sighed.

Sakuno asked, "Ryoma-kun? Are you all right?" She looked at Ryoma's slightly frowning face, concerned. He had been low spirit ever since from the beginning of the date. Sakuno wondered if she had done something wrong.

Ryoma turned and look into Sakuno's eyes, "Well, there are two things why I am sigh-ing about."

Sakuno nodded as they stopped by the traffic light that leads to the public park.

"One, I am worried about Kana." Ryoma said, voicing his concern finally when he couldn't find Kana anywhere. "I look at the rooftop, the tennis courts, and my home and even ask Ryuzaki sensei if she knew her. Well, she doesn't. Did you see her anywhere?"

Sakuno thought, remembering what Kana had told her this morning, "This morning, she said if we couldn't find her anywhere, most likely she had returned back home in America. Is that why you are so downcast since just now?"

Ryoma looked questioningly at his girlfriend, "Really? When did she say that?"

Sakuno noticed a frown was still present on her boyfriend's face, she said soothingly, "I sure she's all right. Kana is a strong girl."

Ryoma considered Sakuno's words, then remembering her eccentric ways, knew that Sakuno was right, "You are right, Kana is a strong girl. I just wished that she hadn't gone back so fast. I haven't had a proper match with her yet," and in an undertone, he added, "and I haven't thanked her…"

"Thank her? For?" Sakuno heard it, now they are walking through the park.

"For, getting me to know some important," Ryoma said, looking up into the night sky, then looked back into Sakuno's eyes, his tone serious, "Important things, and people in my life."

Sakuno blush one more, didn't know what to say, she smiled and turn away, looking at everything but not at Ryoma-kun. Highly embarrassed, she almost tripped over her feet once more.

Ryoma held on tight to her and guide her to a nearby set of swings. Pushing her slightly to sit on one, he sat on the other and continued, "Well, the second thing is that I have you. That's why I sighed."

Shocked by what he said, Sakuno said hurriedly, "Why?"

Ryoma smirked, "I sighed because I am happy. Happy that, I finally have you."

Sakuno blushed once more, and pouted, "Mou!"

Ryoma then pulled out the box that he wrapped hurriedly before leaving his house. He hoped that it had been done properly. For after his long search for Kana, he hadn't had much time. He quickly took a bath, ate a hasty dinner where he forced three quarters of his dinner down before grabbing a box to keep the gift.

"For you," he said, handling it out to Sakuno.

Sakuno took it, unwrapping slowly, expecting to find a necklance or bracelet. But stopped short when she saw something she never expected.

Ryoma said softly and apologetically, "I never had time to pick out a couple ring or necklance. Sorry."

Sakuno hadn't said anything; and Ryoma was starting to worry. "We picked up a couple ring when we get to the mall this weekend, I promise!" Ryoma added, quickly.

Sakuno turned and beamed at him, "I like it!" she took it out and ask Ryoma to tie it on for her.

"Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked.

"Hn?" Ryoma said thickly as his clumsy finger tried to work skillfully, a job he never had done before.

"I thought you don't like my hair to be long. You always said that it's too long that it will come in the way for playing tennis." Sakuno said questioning as she tied the other white hair bow to the right end of her braid.

Ryoma chuckled as he recalled the many times he said, "Your hair is too long." to Sakuno.

Finally finished tying it properly, although it doesn't look half as nicely done as Sakuno's, Ryoma stood up leave a kiss on Sakuno's forehead, then whispering into her ears, "But I loved it that way…"

For the (if you had counted) 11th times, Sakuno blushed once again, but this time, only a slight pink cross her cheek as she boldly kiss Ryoma's cheek.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"For?" He asked, surprised.

"Everything," Sakuno whispered, "Everything, ever since you sat opposite of me on a train."

* * *

Ryoma tossed and turn in his bed.

The sleeping prince once again couldn't sleep.

The luminous minute hand of the clock strike 12, indicating it's already one in the morning. Ryoma looked at it, chuckling softly. It had been unbelievable that 24 hours ago, he was lying here worrying about today. Nope yesterday, Ryoma corrected himself.

Karupin meowed again, wondering why her master once again loses sleep for the second consecutive day. Ryoma rubbed the feline, comforting it. "Well, Sakuno and I now got together. But now Kana had disappeared without a trace. I'm not angry at her for telling it to Oyaji, but why doesn't she at least said goodbye?" Ryoma whispered.

Ryoma sighed; he won't be able to see her anyway. For he knows, she might just be arriving in America right now. He turned over once more, his hand pushing under his pillow, brushing against something.

Curious, he pulled it out and saw another piece of sticky yellow note. With the aid of the moonlight streaming in, he saw the following words:

_Just in case, I am gone…_

_Goodbye! :D_

_Kana_

He grinned, turning once more and fell asleep, the sticky note now beside the tennis ball.

* * *

_Ryoma __was back in school, sitting by his desk, surrounded by a lot of fan girls. He gulped and looks at the date written on the blackboard, 14__th__ of Feb. _

'_It's Valentine day?' Ryoma thought dismally, 'I haven't ask Sakuno out yet!'_

_The halo of fan girls was still there, holding out boxes of chocolates, shouting, "Ryoma-sama accepted mine."_

"_NO! Ryoma-sama accepted mine!"_

"_Mine first! He took mine first!"_

"_IDIOTS! IT'S MINE FIRST!"_

_Ryoma wondered why they were fighting when he hadn't taken any of their chocolates yet._

_Elizabeth was there too, "Ryoma-sama!" she said, bending down low and was about to kiss his cheek when…_

"_Oi, Ryoma!" He knew that voice and shouted, "Kana!" relieved that help had come._

_However__, she had long greenish black hair, the same shade as his. Ryoma stared and asked, "Your hair wasn't pink originally?"_

"_Idiot Oyaji, you mean you don't know who I am after I helped you so much?" the strange looking Kana shouted, fuming. Then, Kana took a racket out of nowhere and hit a twist serve right to his forehead. "Stupid oyaji, you ruined it!" Kana shouted._

_Ryoma was knocked flat on his back. Inui suddenly came into view, looking down at him._

_With a torchlight lighting up his face from below, he said eerily, "There is a 100% chance that this girl is your daughter, Echizen."_

* * *

Shocked, Ryoma jerked awake, his eyes wide. He felt a sense of unbelievable-ness, but couldn't remember what it was. Shrugging the sensation, he turned and slept on, totally forgetting the dream earlier; for he now had a wonderful one.

* * *

_He was standing __in on some kind of podium, where hundreds of people, dressed elegantly, are sitting on benches left and right, looking up at him, smiling. He looked about, white washed ceilings and walls, stained windows depicting pictures of a woman carrying a baby, tall vaulted pillars drape with golden cloth for decorations._

_Outside seems to be crowded, Ryoma could distinctly hear the voices of clicking cameras and many sounds of reporters which seem to be recording live. 'What is going on?' Ryoma thought. Then noticing the silver cross lay just above the close door of the place he was in, someone cleared his throat._

_He turned around and saw a white bearded man dressed in robes, a priest!_

"_Echizen-san," he said in a deep calming voice, "It's almost time, you should get ready." Then with a smile, he turned and stepped up on a higher ground._

_Ryoma turned and saw the door being swung open gently. Someone stood on the red carpet that leads all the way up to him._

_Sakuno was dressed in a beautiful white wedding dre__ss. A cross between the western and Japanese, the dress stood out more than any other ones Ryoma had seen. It was tied firmly about the back, Victorian style, which fully display Sakuno's petite waist line. Open-shouldered, Ryoma could see the necklance on her neck, where a heart lock is worn. Automatically, Ryoma fingered the necklance he was wearing, a key; undoubtly one that could unlock her heart…_

_The lower part of the dress billowed out slightly. It was embroidered with the Japanese Sakura flowers with real pearls sewed into it. It dragged long down the aisle as Sakuno gently and nervously took another step forward to be with her lover, forever._

_Along the aisle, there are people who are throwing petals of flowers, white and red rose petals. Ryoma spotted the regulars with Osaka who were wolf-whistling. Momoshiro voice stood out in the crowd, "I'm jealous, Echizen. How did you get yourself such a beautiful bride?" Laughter rang in the church as people nodded in agreement._

_Tezuka was standing in the place of being Sakuno's father. Knowing her since she was young, Tezuka had assumed the responsibility to being an older brother, he handed Sakuno's gloved hand to Ryoma, "Take good care of her." He said, breaking the stoic behavior for a moment by smiling._

_Up close, Sakuno looks much more stunning than ever. Ryoma could practically see Sakuno radiating out light and felt as though he was standing under a bright but warm sun. A veil covered Sakuno's face, but it did not hide the blush present on Sakuno's face._

_The bride and groom turned about, facing the priest. What the priest was saying, Ryoma didn't hear, he was busy stealing glances at Sakuno's face as though seeing her for the first time. Until Sakuno nudge him slightly, then Ryoma recovered what he had lost._

_The priest was looking at him expectantly._

'_Oh, the vows!' Ryoma thought._

"_I, Echizen Ryoma , take you, Sakuno Ryuzaki, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life." Ryoma spoke, his voice loud in the now silent church._

"_I, Sakuno Ryuzaki , take you, Echizen Ryoma, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." Sakuno said her part without mistakes._

_Smiling, they looked at each other._

_Ryoma's elder brother walked forward, presenting a pair of wedding rings on velvet cushion. Silently,__ Ryoma took the rings that represent the bond between them forever. _

"_With this Ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." Ryoma said, sliding the ring onto Sakuno slender fourth finger._

_Soundlessly, Sakuno too slip on Ryoma's ring on his finger. Something wet fell onto Ryoma's hand. Shocked he looked up to see Sakuno crying, tears of joy._

_The priest smiled at the newlyweds, saying "__You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. That God has joined, men must not divide. Amen."_

"_I now declare you as husband and wife." The priest closed his bible and smiled at Ryoma, "You may kiss your bride."_

_The crowd broke into an applause which did not hide the wolf whistling of many friends, however, Ryoma heard nothing. He gently pulled the veil over Sakuno's auburn head and lean forward, bending a little lower while Sakuno tilted her head upwards slightly. Ryoma's lips were just about to touch hers when…_

* * *

_A hard slap on his back made Ryoma jerked straight up in pain._

"_Don't worry Echizen, she'll be alright." Momoshiro said soothingly._

_The scene had changed, Ryoma was no longer in the church where his life was about to be shared with Sakuno eternally. In fact, the place had a strange smell of medicine that would not be able to get rid of._

_Hospital…_

_The maternity ward…_

'_Oh! I am about to be a father!' Ryoma thought._

_His life now had changed to be shared not only with Sakuno, but with two new members of the Echizen family. Soon._

_Nervously, he twisted the wedding ring he had had it on since almost one year ago. "But, she's been there for hours! And they won't let me in either!"_

_Ann__ sat by him and comforted him. "Come on. I had been in there for 15 hours and I am absolute all right. Sakuno will be too. Anyway, you won't be much help by standing in there, most likely you will be like Momoshiro, freaking out."_

_Ryoma nodded sliently, his throat too dry to speak. Someone pressed a cup of water into his hand._

"_Drink this up, Ryoma-kun. You hadn't eaten anything since 10 hours ago!" came Osaka voice. She had dropped the honorific, sama, since she attended high school 7 years ago. From then onwards, she called Ryoma as Ryoma-kun instead. It was rather obvious why, for she got herself a boyfriend, Horio._

_Obediently, Ryoma drank it up. Halfway gulping down water, he heard the sound of a baby crying. Simultaneously, he choked while Ann and Osaka exchange hugs of joy and the regulars were high fiving. Throwing aside the paper cup, he rushed up to the door where a nurse opened it._

_A young doctor carried a small bundle of cloth hand it over to Ryoma, "There you go, your first son."_

_Ryoma looked into the small bundle of cloth. In it was a baby boy with no hair and brown eyes with the same shade of Sakuno's. His tiny fist was no larger than half a tennis ball where he threw it about, crying. Ryoma stared, the baby looks so small and tiny, Ryoma thought that he looks very vulnerable and might break apart any moment._

_Gently, the doctor guided Ryoma and with some help from Ann, the baby now lies in the arms of Ryoma. He stiffened, afraid that any movement might cause danger to the baby. He was still crying._

_Rinko touched the arm of the young boy, "Ryoma, its okay. Gently rock him to sleep." The experienced mother taught her son._

_Awkwardly, for he had never done it before, Ryoma slowly and gently rocked the baby in his arm. Slowly, the baby fell asleep. Ryoma finally broke into a smile and hand it over to his mother while the doctor carried the second child out. _

_He's a father now! Ryoma could jump in joy._

"_And this," the female doctor carefully gave the second bundle of cloth to Ryoma, "is your younger daughter." Unlike the baby boy, this baby girl was lying peacefully asleep. Like her older brother, she hadn't grown any hair. She stirred slightly in the small bundle and opens her eyes._

_Golden? Or brown?_

* * *

Ryoma would never know until 7 years later. For at this very critical moment, Nanjiroh chose to empty a bucket of cold water over Ryoma's face. Oh well, with Ryoma angered so early in the morning, he would never be able to recall his dream.

Well, he would experience all of them once more…

6 and 7 years later…

* * *

Author notes (please read)

I have to admit that I didn't know that this chapter was SO long. Things just piled in and it turned out longer and longer and longer….

The length is why this chapt took SO LONG to finished… But there are two more main reasons.

The less important is: I can't believe that I wrote this when I have to take my exams tomorrow morning. In the end I hadn't had time to study and had to wake up early the next morning to catch up what I should have learn last night (instead of typing this story)

But the thing is one I started typing, it's hard to stop. Cause I am afraid that my ideas will be lost somewhere and never be found again…

The most important is that: I have not much confidence in this particular chapter. I kept reviewing the part on Ryoma asking Sakuno out. (Especially when I had to deal with the fan girls too) I was afraid that I made everything sound absurd and that Ryoma, doesn't seem like Ryoma at all.

I didn't purposely made Ryoma to be the main one I would be writing on. But as the story flows, he stood out more than Sakuno. Then I thought, oh well, lots of stories had Sakuno revolved about in the center, and I had Ryoma instead. It makes a change. But this certainly complicate things when I started losing confidence on my own work.

So I took almost 1 week to recheck and changed the story plot. 3 days to come out with the date with Sakuno, 2 days to come up with those dreams. Totally, almost 3 weeks of effort was spent on the chapter.

In fact, I was so worried that I asked my sister to check it out for me. Does the story flows properly? Did it breached out too much that is hard to accept? And she told me: I didn't watch Prince of Tennis, how I know?

-.-

But well, I finished it finally. (It's applause for me) And there is still one more last chapter to add. But For I know, the climax had been here, and over. We have to move on back to Kana in the future….

I have to say that I am glad that I published this chapter. It sure relieved tension, but not quite, for I don't know if you (reading my stories for so long) like it. So please make sure to review and save me nights of losing sleep over this chapt that cause me headache over! THANK YOU SO MUCH SO SUPPORTING ME AND RYOSAKU!

There is one last chapter awaiting…

And I have one last note to add.

For those who are curious on how Kana would look like, please visit my blog at

www. Escapingintomyownworld .blogspot. com

Remove those spaces please…

I have another story under construction. The first chapter had been published. Those interested could read it. (navigation provided in my blog! :D)

BYE!


	8. Chapter 8: Home sweet Home

Disclaimer: NOPE, POT doesnt belongs to me. But Ryu, Kana, Itaki, Keiji, Amy, Saruka, and a whole lot of not known or mention younger generation of tennis regulars are mine!

Author Notes: Did I count wrongly? It should be Sakuno and Ryoma married at 21 and had Kana and Ryu when they were 22. Um...

* * *

Chapter 8: Home sweet home

Kana turned sleepily under the many layers of warm covers.

'Wait a second…'

Kana's eyes snapped open and found herself staring at the familiar set of white ceiling. She pushed herself into a sitting position and found herself in a dark room. Her eyes slowly grew accustomed to the dark and she spotted the familiar sight of cluttered objects scattered over the wooden floor and also the red thick set of curtain.

She vaguely wondered if she had dreamt the entire episode of events.

Still not fully awake, she pulled the sheets off, and saw that she was still wearing her own pajamas. There is no Sakuno or Nanako's old clothing about. 'Is it really all just a dream?' She started to push herself out of bed and felt a sharp jab of pain in her right hand. She had pressed against something hard, hidden under the covers.

Feeling about for the unseen object, Kana's hand came into contact with a smooth cylinder. Curiously, she pulled the culprit out.

It is a small bottle filled with green solution.

She smiled.

'Maybe Itaki's juice didn't have everlasting effect…'

She punched a fist in the air and nearly shouted out "I'M HOME!" Then thinking of something important, she spins around and checks the calendar.

'13 of February'

'The whole 2 days of past happened all within one night sleep?'

Footsteps echoed of the corridor outside Kana's bedroom. Soft pattered ones. 'Sakuno's. Nope, it's Okasan's.' Kana corrected herself. Kana quickly gathered her bathroom needs and took a shower. Pink foams were washed away, as the last evidence of Kana ever visiting the past trickled down the pipe into the sewage.

Humming to herself, Kana was in a good mood. While gathering her school needs, she sort of pack up her other stuff on the floor. Books of manga stuffed back into the book shelves, pens inserted back into their holders clumsily, and many objects lay scattered on the study table instead on the ground. Well, at least it's a start.

Kana viewed the messy desk, she shrugged. Seeing Nanako and Sakuno's neat bedrooms did piped up her determination to be neater in the future. But it seems that being neat isn't present in her blood. She sighed, leaving the dark and lesser messy room and went down to the kitchen for her breakfast.

She stopped suddenly just before the stairs leading down. Oh, how could she forget something so important? She quickly rushed back into her room and searched for the tiny set of drawer she had just 'packed' some minutes ago.

Kana pulled out the top most drawers out of the three on the mini cupboard no bigger than the tennis racket. Her mother had bought many hair accessories for her, both old and new, but Kana never used them even when she was old enough to do her hair herself.

Kana picked up a plain red colored band, she never like those overly decorated ones, and sat by the edge of her bed, looking into the replica of a full length mirror Ryu had too in his own room. Her hair had been dried after Kana had blown a good 5 minutes of hot hair dryer over it. With delicate fingers just like her mother's, yet clumsily as she never done it before just like her father's, Kana twist the many strands of hair into a braid.

Deciding that she don't look good in twin braids, Kana opted to pulled all of her thick greenish black hair to the left side and start braiding it. It wasn't done beautifully with strands of hair sticking out, with a harrumphed; Kana gave up and tied the half done braid with the red band.

Kana arrived the foot of the stairs and stepped into the lighted kitchen where everyone else had gathered, she heard the older matured voice of Ryoma's saying, "And maybe in a week, we would be able to move there."

Ryu's familiar voice retorted, "A week? This small house would be filmed in every angle with all the reporters ever had in Japan!" Kana smiled, oh how she missed her twin brother.

Her hands ran over the wooden railing of the stairs as Kana step down, one by one. She would miss this old Japanese house of her grandfather's.

Sakuno soft voice piped up, never changing since she was fifteen, Kana noted. "Now, now. Let's hope that they can be faster than what we can expect from them. Maybe we would move earlier than expected. Anyway, your grandfather would want this house back after having his fill of fun in America."

Ryu pouted, Kana imagined when she recognized the resent voice of Ryu's. "I would have liked it here better."

Kana silently agreed. Najiroh-jichan house felt more like home to her than anywhere else.

Kana reached the kitchen, slide the door open and dumped her bag unceremoniously by her chair once more. Some habits are just hard to change.

Ryu looked up and almost choked on what he was eating.

He swallowed the rice he had in his mouth quickly when Kana looked questioningly at her brother's surprised face. Ryu spluttered out saying whatever had come to his mind first, "Wh-What have you do-done to your hair?" he said, his voice a little higher pitch than normal as he pointed to the untidily done half braided hair of Kana's.

Sakuno and Ryoma looked up at Ryu's exclamation. Ryoma stared, as Kana shrugged. "Well, maybe this will help to keep it out of way during tennis. Right? O-ya-ji?" Kana said, purposely dragging the syllabus once more.

Sakuno sighed and took the band out of place. Expertly, she braided the length of Kana's hair neatly and quickly. Ryoma resumed his eating of breakfast, keeping silent at her daughter strange turn of events. He shift slightly in his seat, Ryoma could feel his daughter gaze intently on him.

Kana smirked, but did not say anything while she ate her share of breakfast. She nodded as the familiar taste of her mother's Japanese cuisine so unlike her grandmother's Rinko style of western.

"We are moving house," Ryu informed her sister.

Kana nodded, recalling the conversation she heard outside just now. "Would it be bigger than the one in America? I hope not. I am not going to have to walk one end to another just to get something to drink while studying…" Kana said through a mouthful of rice.

Ryoma said, "The house itself,"

"MANSION!" the twins corrected their father in unison.

"The mansion," Ryoma repeated carelessly, ignoring the familiar sound of resent of his children's, "would be smaller than the one in America. But the ground would be bigger with more tennis courts."

"Really?" Kana asked excitedly after swallowing the large mouthful of rice in a hurry.

"Yeah," Ryoma nodded his head bend down, lifting another spoon of soup to his lips.

"How many more tennis courts added?" Ryu asked, as excited as his sister.

"About 3 to 5, depends." Ryoma said casually as Sakuno smiled at her children's delight.

Kana's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Ryu said out what had been on her mind, "But, that's too much! There will be a total of almost 5 to 7 courts with addition to the two we had back in America!"

Ryoma nodded, uncomfortable to carry on the conversation.

"There is something else you haven't told us right?" Kana said slowly, suspecting something. Some vague idea ran through, each much more impossible than the last.

Ryoma shrugged innocently and looked away. His insides groaned slightly at the prospect of dealing with her daughter after she known the situation he had, nope, the entire ex-regulars had in plan.

He was saved by her wife. Sakuno shouted alarmingly, "Good gracious! Look at the time! Hurry! Or you two will be late!"

* * *

After seeing his son and daughter safely past the gates of Seishun, Ryoma returned back home where Sakuno was waiting. The houses are filled with the sound of regulars once more.

A blue print lie on the coffee table, Inui's handwriting had been scribbled all afternoon was spent with the discussing voices of Ryoma, the ex-regulars and their wives. Scratches of correction were made to the plan of the blue print as intense argument broke out between Kaidoh and Momoshiro on who should take which rooms.

* * *

Kana spent her day sitting on the desk, or more like, slumping on her desk. All the fun she had was over, and as she look at the corner of the blackboard, '13 Feb', all the chaos are about to begin.

She comforts herself that at least she wasn't back in America where boys too express their feelings on the same day for they hadn't had white day back there. Kana would not be of attention nor would she fall for any traps present in America where Amy would have laid. She vaguely wondered if Amy has found another target to tease other than her.

Ryu pen scratched the surface of his math book. Kana wondered why he ever bothers to take notes when Ryu is already a total genius. Kana maybe smart and good in studies, but Ryu excel better than she did. Sakuno's hard work and Ryoma's cleverness genes must be present in full within Ryu's blood, or the more the reason why Ryu did better than Kana.

'Well, without his notes, I wouldn't be able to keep up with him…' Kana thought, deducing the notes that her brother copied must be much more helpful to Kana than to Ryu.

Kana sit back up right as the teacher droned on about mathematical equations in front. Five minutes later, she slid slightly down on her seat and slid lower when Itaki turned about looking at her.

How she hated him.

Well, in a sense of two, he did help a little.

Only a little.

All the credit of getting her mum and dad together was to her.

And maybe a little, a tiny bit, a tiniest bit of portion was to him.

Kana displayed a blank face and innocent eyes for Itaki to see. He turned back and shook his head, somewhat down casted.

Kana grinned. She turned to look at her bother on her right, positive that he had caught on what had happened.

He hadn't.

Ryu was looking intently, nope; staring intently at the blue haired girl on Kana's left. Kana could see the image of Sakuno staring at her father imprinted on Ryu's face.

Kana nudged the sides of Ryu where he jostled alarmed in his seat. "What?" he whispered softly to his sister.

But by the look on hir sister's mischievous face, Ryu understand that he had been caught on act. He blushed pink and looked determinedly at the scratched equations of the black board and resumed taking down notes.

Kana smirked; it seems to her that this year's valentine would be just as fun as what she had experienced not long ago…

* * *

Author notes:

Oh Ho, Ho... Story is over! :D

Finally, a sense of accomplishment. This is the first story I ever completed writing... HAHAHA I am SO pleased and PROUD!

Thank you so those who had supported me so far, reviewed my stories, added my story for alert, added my story as favourite, added my me as favourite author.. THANK YOU! I LOVED you all! :D

Well, I purposely ended with something still not known, I wonder if anyone spotted it...

IF I had time, I MIGHT go on with another story with the younger generation, but I wonder...

Well enough talk, reviews? (This is the last time I am asking reviews for this story, kind of sad actually...)


	9. Author's Note

Dear Readers,

First of all, thank you all very much who had pull out time to read this following post. I terribly sorry for those who thought that this would be another chapter uploaded. I know the disappointment when I saw Author's Notes instead of another fun filled chapter.

The reason for this post is for me to know if anyone is waiting and really wants for a sequence to follow up on this particular story. I have the plot and all, but I wished not to waste time if not much people bothers on reading on the crap that I am writing.

So please all current readers and fans of mine, pls drop a note by giving a review, telling me if you wished for the story to continue on in 'season 2'. I will only continue if there is enough people who wished for me to do so. If not, I am sincerely sorry to those few who are looking forward. I do have drafts for future scenes. I could give my idea to any others who wished to continue on the horrible story I made.

Once again, thank you so much for those who took time to read and consider my offer. I will be waiting eagerly for all your reviews.

It sounds a bit rude but I will only wait for a week or so. Please kindly review in before 12 December 2011.

Hope to see you again.

Thank you all for the kind support! :)

Sasacocoa


	10. Author's Note II

Dear Readers,

I got less than 10 reviews. Kind of disappointing. So, I guess that's it. No more Echizen Kana and Ryu and the pending romance story for the two children.. So, that's it. Thank you for ALL your support so far! Love you!

Sasa-cocoa


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